REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 1916 83 



Saw-toothed grain beetle (Silvanus sttrinamensis 



Linn.). This minute, brown grain beetle is a common species in 

 cereal preparations and occasionally occurs in large numbers in 

 grain bins. Such an instance was brought to our knowledge in 

 August 1903, the insects being extremely abundant in a large bin 

 filled with oats and, escaping from there, made nuisances of them- 

 selves in adjacent dwellings. Early in September of the past season 

 our attention was called to a similar infestation in which oats were 

 so badly infested that horses would not eat them. It was impossible 

 to obtain any definite statements as to the earlier history of the 

 grain though the probabilities are that the oats had been stored for 

 some months in a badly infested bin. The obvious remedy is to 

 thoroughly clean out granaries and grain bins every few months in 

 order to prevent excessive multiplication of such insects, and these 

 measures may well be supplemented in special cases by thorough 

 fumigation with carbon bisulphide or, where conditions justify, 

 treatment with hydrocyanic acid gas. 



Barypeithes pellucidus Boh. This is a reddish brown or dark- 

 brown, rather hairy, small weevil, about one-eighth of an inch 

 long, which was found rather commonly under dead leaves in an 

 apple orchard at Kendall, N. Y., May 22 and June 1, 19 16. The 

 weevils appeared to be feeding upon the dead foliage and attracted 

 attention because of their being somewhat numerous. This incon- 

 spicuous European species appears to be a recent introduction 

 which has been recorded from both Long and Staten Islands and 

 Batavia, and also from Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio locali- 

 ties. It is credited with attacking strawberry plants in Europe, 

 though nothing of the kind has been observed in America. 



Sun-flower purse gall (Asphondylia globulus O. S.) • 

 A number of galls produced by this species and collected August 

 1, 1 9 16, by Roy Latham, Orient, N. Y., enabled us to make a study 

 of the structure of this deformity. The plants show that the galls 

 may occur within 4 inches of the ground and from that to a con- 

 siderable height, presumably 3 feet or more. There are several 

 types of the deformity, evidently due to the same insect and explain- 

 able largely by variations in method of oviposition. 



In the first place there are minor, less characteristic galls forming 

 irregular, lobulate masses of the flower heads and terminal buds. 

 These galls are more or less variable in shape and when in a group 

 may form a mass not unlike that of A. c o n s p i c u a O. S. and 

 approximately three-fourths of an inch in diameter. 



