60a EXPERIMENT STATION. ' [Jan. 



REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



H. T. I'ERNALD, 



During the year 1914 little has been attempted along new 

 lines of investigation, a sufficient number of subjects previously 

 undertaken remaining incomplete to occupy all the time avail- 

 able. This report, therefore, indicates mainly progress in re- 

 search already undertaken at the time of the report for 1913. 



A part of the regular work of the station is attending to cor- 

 respondence with reference to insects. During the past year this 

 has amounted to about 2,800 letters. In most cases the in- 

 quiries have been for information about the less well-known in- 

 sects, which has, of course, involved the expenditure of more 

 time than was the case a few years ago. In a number of in- 

 stances the information desired was not available, requiring con- 

 siderable investigation, and in some cases the rearing of ma- 

 terial sent in and the devotion of considerable time to the work. 



Among the lines of investigation continued were a farther 

 observation of the dates of hatching of the young of our various 

 common destructive scales ; a study of the distribution of pests 

 in different parts of the State in order to determine the existence 

 of sections where some might prove of little or no importance: 

 the testing of a number of insecticides, and the completion by 

 Dr. Smulyan of his work on the Marguerite fly, which has now 

 been published as a bulletin from the station. 



Experiments for the control of the onion maggot were con- 

 tinued last spring, but an unanticipated scarcity of this insect 

 made these of less value than was anticipated, and the work will 

 need to be repeated and extended this coming season. 



Under the Adams fund, farther study of the Sphecida? as 

 parasites has been prosecuted with satisfactory progress, and 

 spraying with pure materials as a basis for investigations on 



