55 
The next paper was entitled: 
NOTES UPON THE DESTRUCTIVE GREEN PEA LOUSE (NECTARO- 
PHORA DESTRUCTOR JOHNS.) FOR 1900. 
By W. G. Jonnson, College Park, Md. . 
_ Perhaps no insect in recent years has attracted more attention than 
the destructive green pea louse. It became conspicuous, first, on 
account of its ravenous attacks upon pea fields, a crop heretofore 
practically immune from the ravages of insects; and, secondly, from 
the fact that it was a species not recorded in science. What condition 
in nature was responsible for such a general distribution of a new 
species of insect the writer will not attempt to discuss in this short 
paper. It appeared last year, and was recorded for the first time, from 
Maine along the Atlantic coast southward to North Carolina, and west- 
ward to Wooster, Ohio. It was also observed in Nova Scotia and 
Ottawa, Canada. I had it sent to me from Massachusetts and Ver- 
mont in July and August, and complaints of its serious nature have 
come to me from Chillicothe, Ohio, Long Island, N. Y., portions of 
New Jersey, and Wisconsin (August). I first observed the pest May 
18, 1899, and have had it under constant observation from that date to 
the present writing. I described the newcomer in the February issue 
of the Canadian Entomologist as Wectarophora destructor. A very’ 
long name, I admit, but if there is anything in a name being a burden 
to its possessor, we hope that this one will accomplish such a purpose. 
From the first I have held that this insect is probably a clover pest. 
It has been observed upon both red and crimson clover, and this season 
hundreds of acres of red clover have been destroyed by it. In one 
instance, reported to me June 13, Mr. C. Silas Thomas, of Lander, 
Frederick County, Md., stated that the pest had almost entirely ruined 
65 acres of red clover for him. Many other cases of a similar nature 
were reported or observed by us. The attack has-been very common 
upon crimson clover also, but I have not heard of a field being killed 
by it. That clover, and perhaps the red clover, is its original food 
plant seems quite conclusive from our experiments and observations. 
I am of the opinion that red clover is its original food, and that it is, 
therefore, primarily a clover pest. Without doubt it is a native Ameri- 
can insect, and has spread its attacks to crimson clover and field peas, 
as these two plants have encroached upon the feeding ground of the 
louse. It spends the winter, at least in the South, as an adult in clover 
fields. It may winter in another form farther north. 
It is barely possible that this insect has other food plants and lives 
over winter upon them, but clover is, no doubt, the main plant upon 
which it lives. Mr. F. H. Chittenden, of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, Division of Entomology, in Washington, observed this 
