55 



A NEW SUGAR-BEET PEST. 



An interesting addition to Mr. Lawrence Bruner's list of sugar-beet 

 insects lias come to the front this summer on the grounds of tlie Sugar 

 Beet Station of the Chemical Division of this Department at Schuyler, 

 Nebr. In the third week in July the experiment plats were found to be 

 badly "ragged" by a small dark-green caterpillar of great activity and 

 voracious appetite. Experiments Avith different insecticides were imme- 

 diately instituted by Mr. C. B. Edson, who was temporarily in charge 

 of the work during the absence of Mr. Walter Maxwell. Paris greeu, 

 Persian insect powder, and white hellebore were tried, with varying re- 

 sults. Specimens of the insect were forwarded to Washington. The 

 moth has not yet been reared, and the caterpillar is new to the national 

 collection. It bears a close resemblance to the Garden Web-worm 

 {Eurycreon rantalh=^Loxostege similaUs Gn.), which in 1885 damaged cot- 

 ton, corn, and different garden vegetables in Kansas, Colorado, Ne- 

 braska, Texas, and the Indian Territory, and which we treated at some 

 length in our annual report for that year. The sugar-beet larvae, how- 

 ever, are darker in color and differ somewhat in the arrangement of 

 the tubercles, but will probably jirove to belong to the same genus. 

 In fact, in August Mr. Maxwell sent us specimens of Loxostege sticticalis 

 L., which were flying in great numbers and resting on the under sides of 

 the beet leaves, and which will in all probability prove to be the adult of 

 the injurious caterpillar. Unless Mr. Edson's remedial work has been 

 very complete another generation will probably appear the present 

 summer, and we will endeavor to give a detailed account before the 

 close of the season. 



THE LARVAL HABITS OF Thalpochares cocciphaga. 



This interesting little Noctuid moth, whicb has been imported from 

 Australia on several occasions through Mr. Koebele's assistance, is, as 

 will be remembered by those who have read Bulletin 21 of this Divi- 

 sion, an important enemy of the Black Scale in Australia. Mr. Koe- 

 bele's 1888 sendings were unsuccessful, as the specimens all died after 

 their receipt in California. Recently, however, many other specimens 

 have been received in good condition, and have been carefully placed 

 in advantageous positions upon infested olive trees at Los Angeles. 

 The following extract from a letter recently received from Mr. Coquil- 

 lett gives an interesting account of the larval habits, but is discourag- 

 ing in view of their expected efficacy against the Black Scale: 



Several days ago I removed about a dozen larva? of Thalpoc^mres cocciphaga from 

 their cocoons and placed tbem in a box ixpou some twigs thickly infested with Black 

 Scales. Although the prolegs of these larvre are abortive, they are furnished Avith 

 hooks at the tip, and the larva?, are able to crawl about, but they move very slowly 

 and do not use the last, or anal, pair of prolegs, but hold the posterior end of the body 

 slightly elevated above the surface upon which they are crawling. These larva? are 

 very pugnacious, and whenever two of them meet a light is almost certain to occur, 



