22 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



to the summary in the report of the Entomologist shows a decrease 

 the past season in the abundance of both joint worms, this being 

 particularly marked in Genesee and Schuyler counties with :i 

 tendency in the opposite direction in the case of Ontario and 

 Orleans counties. 



Observations upon the army w^orm, Heliophila uni- 

 p u n c t a Haw., show that the partly grown caterpillars survived 

 the very severe winter of 1918-19 in Saratoga county, they being 

 repeatedly found in partly rotted corn stalks, and in smaller num- 

 bers in the spring of 1920. These are new records for this section 

 of the county and have an important bearing upon army worm out- 

 breaks. 



A distinctly unusual feature was the submission of leather jackets 

 or maggots of a crane fly, Pedecia albivitta Walk., 

 accompanied by the statement that they occurred in large numbers 

 in Schuyler county in an oat field and were presumably causing some 

 injury. 



Other field crops. The ordinary crop pests attracted compara- 

 tively little attention, though in early spring there was considerable 

 complaint of an unusual abundance of asparagus beetles, C r i o - 

 ceris asparagi Linn. These insects were specially trouble- 

 some upon commercial beds, not only because of their feeding upon 

 the shoots, but on account of the numerous black eggs which neces- 

 sitated very careful washing before the asparagus was taken ro 

 market. 



There was a distinctly unusual outbreak of the green clover worm, 

 Plathupena scabra Fab., upon beans, the greenish 

 white-striped caterpillars feeding generally upon the leaves of both 

 common and lima beans and causing serious and somewhat general 

 injury in various parts of the State. 



Codling moth. Field studies of the codling moth have been con- 

 tinued in cooperation with the bureau of horticulture of the State 

 Department of Farms and Markets. Special attention was given 10 

 securing exact records of evening temperatures as well as the 

 maxima and minima. The accuracy of this work was materially 

 increased by the cooperation of the United States Weather Bureau 

 in loaning thermographs and supervising the setting up of the instru- 

 ments. The intimate relations existing between evening tempera- 

 tures and codling moth oviposition are graphically represented in a 

 chart prepared by L. F. Strickland, who was also responsible for the 

 observations upon egg deposition in various orchards. The demon- 

 stration of this relationship is a material step in solving the vexatious 

 problem of codling moth control in the western part of the State. 



