THE SOUTHERN CORN" LEAF-BEETLE. 9 



first planting having been entirely destroyed. The devastation of 

 1914 was very severe but not so heavy as in 1913. 



Considerable search on cotton and wheat growing in the vicinity 

 of infested cornfields near Paris, Ark., developed no damage to these 

 crops. 



DISSEMINATION. 



The beetles have powerful wings and have been observed in fields 

 long distances from where they originated. Especially was this true 

 in one instance, during the fall of 1910, where it was positively known 

 that they developed in certain bottom-land fields, later migrating 2 

 miles to a field of late upland corn, where great numbers of them were 

 found feeding upon the belated ears. In this last-mentioned field 

 the farmer planted wheat and in the operation the drill raked up 

 piles of the corn leaves, among which great numbers of the beetles 

 hibernated during the following winter. Counts made the follow- 

 ing spring, before they left hibernating quarters, indicated that about 

 80 per cent of these beetles survived the winter. A lot of the dead 

 beetles were kept for parasites, but no parasites developed. From 

 these hibernating quarters beetles emerged in this same field in late 

 March, after the weather had become warm. They were noticed 

 flying in a northerly direction, though just where they went could 

 not be determined. 



It does not seem to the writer that an outbreak of this insect is 

 brought about by the growing of any particular crop on a certain 

 field, but it would appear that an outbreak is very likely to follow 

 where a field has been allowed to lie idle, especially so if allowed to grow 

 cocklebur and volunteer corn for a year or more and to become very 

 weedy and foul, thus affording hibernating quarters. 



The fact that adults have been found hibernating in grasslands, 

 in which situation larvae have never been found, indicates that they 

 do not necessarily hibernate in the field in which they breed, and 

 furthermore that they do fly away from their breeding grounds. 



REMEDIES. 



A great number of beetles have been taken at lights, which would 

 indicate that a powerful light trap situated in the vicinity of the 

 infested field might materially reduce them. In the early fall, when 

 they are flying in search of hibernating quarters, it is possible that 

 the light trap would catch large numbers. 



Judging from the conditions of fields in which they have been ob- 

 served hibernating in large numbers, the cleaning up of all rubbish in 

 the cornfields early in the fall, especially in fields for very late corn, 

 would prove an effective remedy as a protection for the succeeding 

 crop. The fact that large numbers were observed in the vicinity of 

 cotton gins would suggest that the managers of cotton gins might use 



