BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 78 



Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology, L. O. Howard, Chief. 

 May 18, 1914. 



(PROFESSIONAL PAPER.) 



THE SO-CALLED TOBACCO WIREWORM IN 

 VIRGINIA. 



By G. A. Runner, 

 Entomological Assistant, Southern Field Crop Insect Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



For the study of insects injurious to tobacco the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology during the last four summers has maintained a temporary 

 field station at Appomattox, Va. Work of this station has been 

 under the direction of Mr. W. D. Hunter, in Charge of Southern 

 Field Crop Insect Investigations, and more immediately under the 

 supervision of Mr. A. C. Morgan. Laboratory quarters were fur- 

 nished by the Tenth Congressional District Agricultural School. 

 The results of investigations of the tobacco Crambus (Crambus cali- 

 ginosellus Clem.) are given in this bulletin. 



The work in Virginia was in cooperation with the State experiment 

 station and the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. Through an agreement with the cooperators, the 

 Bureau of Entomology was furnished all data pertaining to the rota- 

 tion of crops grown in connection with tobacco, and the plats of the 

 several tobacco stations in the State were placed at the disposal of 

 the agent in charge, for inspection and experiment. The records 

 of these stations, extending over a series of years, are of great value 

 in determining the crop rotations and cultural methods of control 

 best adapted to the special conditions to be dealt with in different 

 tobacco sections. 



The experimental work with tobacco in Appomattox County, Va., 

 was begun by the Bureau of Soils in 1904. The work has since been 

 conducted cooperatively by the Bureau of Plant Industry and the 

 Virginia experiment station. Since the first, owing to the work of 



i Throughout the tobacco-growing sections of Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia the larvae of the 

 tobacco Crambus are generally known as " wireworms." They are also known in other sections as " tobacco 

 wireworms," "budworms," "corn worms," "stalk worms," "heart worms," "cutworms," "stem worms," 

 "root web worms," and "screw worms." In parts of Tennessee and Kentucky the larvae are commonly 

 called "screw worms." The term "wireworm" is also applied, as in other sections, to the true wire- 

 worms (larvae of Elateridae), which the Crambus larvae in no way resemble. 



Note.— This bulletin is descriptive of an insect enemy of tobacco and corn. Of especial interest in 

 the eastern tobacco and corn districts. 



30183°— Bull. 78-14 1 



