REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9IO 51 



tions annually may be produced in greenhouses, considerable de- 

 pending upon the conditions. 



The experience of others as well as that of Mr Dunbar, cited 

 above, shows this insect to be quite resistant to insecticides, such 

 as hellebore, tobacco extracts, or fumigation with hydrocyanic acid 

 gas. It is very probable that judicious and early under-spraying 

 with a poison, particularly arsenate of lead, would prove an import- 

 ant means of controlling this pest. Such treatment is, as a rule,, 

 objectionable in greenhouses because of the accompanying dis- 

 figuration of the foliage. 



Systematic hand picking, in connection with other work and 

 including the destruction of the moths when at rest in a green- 

 house, is perhaps as effective as any control method. This should 

 be supplemented by isolating infested plants wherever noted and 

 taking special pains to destroy all the insects thereupon before 

 they are returned to the benches. Prevention of infestation is by 

 all means the most satisfactory, and we would urge the exercise 

 of great care to see that greenhouses are stocked in the fall with 

 plants uninfested by this pest. There is always the possibility of 

 moths of this species entering ventilators or doors in early fall. 

 A careful watch should be kept for such infestations and should 

 they occur great care exercised to destroy the caterpillars before 

 the pest becomes abundant enough to cause serious trouble later 

 in the season. 



An extended account of this species, with references to other 

 literature is given by F. H. Chittenden in Bulletin 27, new series. 

 Division of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture, 

 from which certain of the above statements have been taken. 



Wheat wireworm (Agriotes mane us Say) . This 

 common wireworm is best known because of its depredations upon 

 wheat, its injuries being particularly severe in the Middle States. 

 Mr Purley Minturn of Locke forwarded specimens and reported 

 under date of May 20, 1910 that this pest had been quite injurious 

 to oat fields in his vicinity, entirely ruining some. He adds that 

 all badly infested fields had been in meadow for five years or 

 more and were sown to buckwheat last year and to oats this spring. 

 This species has also^been recorded as injuring corn and potatoes. 



The slender, tapering, brownish, slightly hairy parent insects, 

 instantly recognized as click beetles or snapping beetles, occur in 

 June. They are of a dark, waxy, yellow color and not readily 

 differentiated from other numerous, very similar allies. The 

 destructive form or larva of this species may be easily distinguished 



