Twenty-Fourth Report 

 of the State Entomologist 



CONTENTS 



Page I'Mfic 



liitrodiRtioii 4 Mormon cricket l.S 



Cutwoi-ms 6 Sugar-beet webworni 1:^ 



Grasslioppers 8 Fruit insects 1." 



New pest of wheat 12 Correspondence HI 



INTRODUCTION 



The expenditures of the State Entomologist were limited to an 

 appropriation of $500 in 1931-32, and $450 in 1932-33. It is thus 

 perfectly evident from the amount of money available that no 

 extensive insect-control activities, no matter how great the emergency 

 might be, could be undertaken. On account of the threatened grass- 

 liop}:)er outbreaks it was possible through cooperation with the Agri- 

 cultural Extension Service to employ an assistant during four months 

 of the 1931 season and during two months of 1932. The work was 

 very largely limited therefore to the control of grasshoppers. Other 

 services were necessarily carried out through correspondence. 



The unprecedented outbreak of the sugar-beet webworm should 

 have received more active attention from this office. Although 

 hundreds of telephone calls and letters, asking for the identification 

 of the insect and methods of control, were handled, in few instances 

 was it possible to furnish the direct supervision of control operations 

 that was requested. Our efforts relative to this insect were greatly 

 supplemented by County Agent Kay Cameron at Great Falls, and 

 County Agent R. B. McKee at Billings, who by frequent radio talks 

 l)rought information on webworms not only to farmers of their own 

 counties but also to those in many other parts of the state. 



In an agricultural region such as Montana, where rainfall, insect 

 population, and crop production fluctuate greatly from one year to 

 the next, one of the most valuable services that can be rendered the 

 farmers, from the entomological standpoint, is the prediction of 

 injurious insect outbreaks. If farmers can be warned in advance that 

 a certain insect is soon to become a serious menace to crops, they 

 can prepare to take the necessary steps toward its control. By tak- 



