the precipitation is limited. It does not occur along the gi.if 

 coast of Texas, which would indicate that in a territory wii,, 

 a mild winter but a high rainfall, it is held in check in summer 

 by fungus diseases. The insect appears to be at present most 

 troublesome, per capita wealth, in New Mexico. The insect 

 occurs in Eastern and Western Washington, and Northern 

 Oregon, indicating that a mild, wet winter does not hurt it. 



''The vital damage is caused by the piercing of the newly- 

 formed heads of cereals and the feeding on the liquid contents, 

 by which the formation of the grain is prevented, or its weight 

 greatly reduced" (U. S. D. A. Bulletin 779, p. 1). Just a few 

 samples: ". . . in May, 1903, one farmer in Arizona wrote 

 that there was an average of about 10 bugs to each head of 

 barley in his 40-acre field . . /' (p. 2) "In July, 1.913, a cor- 

 respondent wrote from Cloudcroft, N. Mex., that the grainbug 

 had ruined 12 acres of rye on his ranch . . ." (p. 3). "Mr. H. 

 E. Smith records that at Roswell, N. Mex., in 1913. at least 

 two-thirds of the barley heads were ruined in a field that nor- 

 mally would yield from -iO to 60 bushels per acre. At Porters- 

 ville, Texas, in 1913, the wheat in a 150-acre field which prom- 

 ised a yield of from 50 to 60 bushels, threshed only 22 bushels 

 of very inferior grain per acre. ... In one instance . . . 

 a carload of oats averaged only 18 pounds per bushel." 



The insect is well established in Utah and Colorado, in 

 Colorado among many other points reaching an altitude of 

 9,300 feet, at Silverton. No reason, then, why it should not 

 find favorable conditions to exist permanently in Oklahoma, 

 Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wyoming, Tennessee and Ken - 



