418 ENTOMOLOGY 



Add to this the amount supplied by the Federal Government, and 

 the total is more than twenty million dollars. 



The San Jose scale insect (Aspidiotus perniciosus), a native of North 

 China, was introduced into the San Jose valley, California) about 1870, 

 probably upon the flowering Chinese peach, became seriously destruc- 

 tive there in 1873, was carried across the continent to New Jersey in 

 1886 or 1887 on plum stock, and thence distributed directly to several 

 other states upon nursery stock. At present the San Jose scale is a 

 permanent menace to horticulture throughout the United States, and is 

 being checked or subdued only by the vigorous and continuous work of 

 official entomologists, acting under special legislation. This pernicious 

 insect occurs also in Japan, Hawaii, Australia and Chile. 



The Mexican cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis), which is 

 found throughout Mexico and in Guatemala, Costa Rica and western 

 Cuba, crossed the Rio Grande river and appeared in Brownsville, 

 Texas, about 1892. It either flew across the river or was carried across 

 in seed cotton. Since then it has extended its range every year until in 

 1921 it had practically " reached the limit of cotton cultivation." 



The beetle hibernates and lays its eggs in the squares or bolls of 

 cotton; these are injured both by the larva feeding within and by the 

 beetles, whose feeding-punctures destroy the bolls and cause them to 

 drop. The annual loss from the weevil is far in excess of $200,000,000. 

 The pest has now been thoroughly studied by the Bureau of Entomology, 

 and the adoption of the control methods recommended by the Bureau 

 enables cotton to be grown at a fair profit; though the days of "bumper 

 crops" have gone. 



The European corn borer (Pyrausta nubilalis), long known in Europe 

 as a pest of corn, hemp, hops and millet, was discovered near Boston, 

 Massachusetts, in 1916, having been introduced probably in hemp sent to 

 a cordage factory, or in broom corn. In 1919 the borer was found to 

 be infesting four hundred square miles in the vicinity of Schenectady, 

 New York, having arrived possibly in bales of broom corn from Austria. 

 In 1920 the insect had established itself in an area of nineteen hundred 

 square miles in eastern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and 

 New York, and appeared in Ontario, Canada. The borer feeds not only 

 on cultivated plants but also on a great variety of weeds. Energetic 

 efforts are being made to prevent this destructive insect from spreading 

 westward into the corn belt. 



The green Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) , which in its native 

 home is not an important pest, was discovered in New Jersey in August , 



