55 

 The next paper was entitled: 



NOTES UPON THE DESTRUCTIVE GREEN PEA LOUSE (NECTARO- 

 PHORA DESTRUCTOR JOHNS.) FOR 1900. 



By W. (i. Johnson, College Park, Md. 



Perhaps no insect in recent years has attracted more attention than 

 the destructive green pea louse. It became cons[)i(;uous, lirst, on 

 account of its ravenous attacks upon pea tields, a crop heretofore 

 practically immune from the ravages of insects; and, secondly, from 

 the fact that it was a species not recorded in science. What condition 

 in nature was responsible for such a g-eneral distribution of a new 

 species of insect the writer will not attempt to discuss in this short 

 paper. It appeared last year, and was recorded for the first time, from 

 Maine along the Atlantic coast south w^ard to North Carolina, and west- 

 ward to Wooster, Ohio. It w^as also observed in Nova Scotia and 

 Ottawa, Canada. I had it sent to me from Massachusetts and Ver- 

 mont in July and August, and complaints of its serious nature have 

 come to me from Chillicothe, Ohio, Long Island, N. Y., portions of 

 New Jerse}^, and Wisconsin (August). I first observed the pest May 

 18, 1899, and have had it under constant observation from that date to 

 the present writing. I described the newcomer in the February issue 

 of the Canadian Entomologist as Neetarophora dextrticior. A very 

 long name, I admit, but if there is anything in a name being a burden 

 to its possessor, we hope that this one will accomplish such a purpose. 



From the first I have held that this insect is probably a clover pest. 

 It has been observed upon both red and crimson clover, and this season 

 hundreds of acres of red clover have been destroyed by it. In one 

 instance, reported to me June 13, Mr. C. Silas Thomas, of Lander, 

 Frederick Count}', Md., stated that the pest had almost entireh' ruined 

 65 acres of red clover for him. Many other cases of a similar nature 

 were reported or observed by us. The attack has been very common 

 upon crimson clover also, but I have not heard of a field being killed 

 by it. That clover, and perhaps the red clover, is its original food 

 plant seems quite conclusive from our experiments and observations. 

 I am of the opinion that red clover is its original food, and that it is, 

 therefore, primarily a clover pest. Without doubt it is a native Ameri- 

 can insect, and has spread its attacks to crimson clover and field peas, 

 as these two plants have encroached upon the feeding ground of the 

 louse. It spends the winter, at least in the South, as an adult in clover 

 fields. It may winter in another form farther north. 



It is barely possible that this insect has other food plants and lives 

 over winter upon them, but clover is, no doubt, the main plant upon 

 which it lives. Mr. F. H. Chittenden, of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Division of Entomology, in Washington, observed thit 



