UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology 

 L. O. HOWARD, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



June 29, 1915. 



THE SHARP-HEADED GRAIN LEAFHOFPER. 



By Edmund H. Gibson, Entomological Assistant, Cereal and Forage Insect 



Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The sharp-headed grain j assid or leaf hopper (Draeculacephala mol- 

 lipes Say) has long been known to infest cereal and forage crops, 

 principally grains and grasses. It is probably one of the most com- 

 monly observed insects of the farm, ranging throughout practically 

 the entire United States. However, as Prof. Herbert Osborn re- 

 marks, 1 ' ' it seems to have received much less notice from the economic 

 standpoint than it merits." 



The observations and facts set forth in this paper are the result of 

 an entire year's work on the species in the Salt River Valley of Ari- 

 zona during 1914, together with occasional observations elsewhere. 

 With these data have been included the results of various miscella- 

 neous observations made by other assistants engaged in cereal and 

 forage insect investigations in the Bureau of Entomology. 



The most extended account of this species previously published is 

 included by Prof. Herbert Osborn x in Bulletin 108 of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, and the aim of the present paper is to supplement 

 Prof. Osborn' s excellent treatise from which the author has freely 

 quoted. The sharp-headed grain jassid was described by Say in 1831, 

 mentioned by Dr. Asa Fitch in his list of insects in 1851, and was 

 commented upon by Prof. P. R. Uhler in 1884. Prof. H. Garman 

 describes it as a corn pest in 1890 in the second Annual Report of 

 the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, and Prof. Osborn 

 gave an account of the species in Bulletin 22, Division of Entomology, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, and in 1891, 1892, and 1897 added 

 materially to the knowledge of the species, his account in 1912 being 

 the last published treatise on the species. 



irn, Herbert. Leeihoppei in<i forage crops. U.S. Dopt. Agr., Bur. 



. p., 29 fi;;., i pi., Sept. 12, 1912. I oe p. 66, 



i - i f.f Intere i to entomologist i throughout the I nihil State 



. :. 26 i — 16 



