244 THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



vals over a period of years (95). It is possible that serious destruction 

 does occur during some seasons. 



Other Soil Insects. Several insects not previously discussed are re- 

 corded in the literature as attacking the pods and underground parts of 

 peanuts. These records include the following: Japanese beetle, Popillia 

 japonica Newn., attacking peanuts in Japan (159) and a potential pest in 

 the United States ; termites in many parts of the world ; a mealybug, 

 Pseudococcus sp. on peanut roots causing severe damage in Puerto Rico 

 (138) ; mealybug, P. solani Ckll., occurring on peanut roots but causing 

 little damage in Florida (23) ; pineapple mealybug, P. hrevipes (Ckll.) on 

 peanut pods in Tanganyika (67) ; citrus mealybug, P citri (Risso), and 

 also Phenacoccus hirsutus Green on roots of peanuts in Egypt (78) ; 

 larvae of the yam beetle, Heteroligus Claudius Klug., killing as high as 70 

 percent of seedling peanuts in the Province of Nigeria (88) ; iwo ants, 

 Solenopsis jugax Latr. and Tetramorium coespitum L., a mole cricket, 

 Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa L., and three species of beetle larvae, Pentodon 

 idiota Hbst., Agriotes gurgistanus Fald., and Podonta daghestanica Reitt 

 in North Caucasus ( 132) ; the mole crickets, Scapteriscits acletus R. & H. 

 and 5". vicinus Scudd., on peanuts in southeastern United States (163) ; 

 two ants, Eciton caeca Latr. and Ectatomma ruidiim Roger, in Central 

 America (21) ; the earwig, Euborellia stali Dohrn, causing as high as 20 

 percent damage to peanut pods in southern India (25) ; several species 

 in Senegal including termites, Termes natalensis Hav. and T. bellicosus 

 Semath which gnaw pods, and Odontotermes vulgaris Hav. which attacks 

 the nuts themselves ; white grubs, Schizoncha africana Cast., Anomala 

 pleheja Ol., Adoretus umbrosus F., and Podalgus (Crator) cunicidus at- 

 tacking underground parts ; the beetle, Scydmaenus chevalieri boring 

 into pods and the ants, Monomorium hicolor Em. and Dorylus julvus 

 Westu. eating seeds of perforated pods (131). 



Control. Few studies have been made on control of insects attacking 

 underground parts of peanuts. Soil treatment with DDT and benzene 

 hexachloride has been found to reduce southern corn rootworm injury 

 to corn (60). Results of control experiments on southern corn rootworm 

 on peanuts in Virginia (64) showed that DDT applied to the soil at the 

 rate of 50 pounds of technical material per acre resulted in a reduction of 

 61 to 68 percent in the number of pods injured ; yield records were not 

 taken. The writer (5) found that soil treatment with DDT, BHC, chlor- 

 dane and toxaphene reduced the injury to pods by soil insects on repli- 

 cated plots in Alabama. In 1949, he found that dusting with toxaphene 

 or DDT reduced damage from Diabrotica larvae (8). Eflfective control 



