32 BULLETIN 1103, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



shipped from New Orleans, and similar radical methods for the erad- 

 ication of the pest were undertaken here. 



The first record of this pest in Louisiana, outside of the city of 

 New Orleans, was made on September 23, 1921, when complaint was 

 made of an outbreak in Victory Park, Baton Rouge, on Camellia 

 japonica. The plants had been set out in the park about a year before 

 and came from New Orleans. Another record of this pest in 

 Louisiana was made on December 4, when specimens were sent to 

 the agricultural experiment station from Hammond. 



During November two new infested localities were discovered in 

 Mississippi, one at Pass Christian and the other at Biloxi. 



In January, 1922, a most discouraging discovery was made. Up 

 to this time the successful eradication work in Mississippi and the 

 work being carried on in the city of New Orleans gave hope that 

 this pest might be exterminated. Then the pest was discovered in- 

 festing the large swamp area north of the city of New Orleans, 

 ^covering a territory of about 10 square miles, making it very improb- 

 able that it will ever be destroyed. Its present distribution is shown 

 in Figure 15. 



The camphor scale has been found infesting a large variety of 

 plants. Upward of 150 different species have already been recorded 

 as food plants, some of them casually, but a large number very 

 intensively. 



MEXICAN BEAN BEETLE. 

 (Epilachna comipta Muls.) 6 



The Mexican bean beetle was originally confined to the region lying 

 west of central Texas and south of the northern border of Colorado, 

 including Arizona and New Mexico. In 1920 it was discovered in 

 the Birmingham region in Alabama. Survey work was instituted 

 that year and the distribution was found to cover all of Jefferson, 

 Shelby, and St. Clair Counties, the greater part of Etowah, Dekalb, 

 Blount, and Bibb Counties, the eastern half of Tuscaloosa County, 

 and the adjacent parts of Walker, Cullman, Marshall, Cherokee, Cal- 

 houn, Talladega, and Chilton Counties. 



Federal quarantine was instituted on May 1, 1921, for the infested 

 area and survey work carried on through the season of 1921. By 

 July 26, 1921, the infested area was found to be so extensive that 

 practical quarantine was impossible and the quarantine was raised. 

 At the present time this beetle is known to infest the northern half 

 of Alabama, the northern fourth of Georgia, the eastern third of 

 Mississippi, and the extreme western corners of North Carolina and 

 South Carolina. 



J 



6 From reports of J. E. Graf, X. F. Howard, and others, Bureau of Entomology. 



