32 



About the middle of July letters began to come in to the Department 

 concerning a so-called new insect occurring on cotton. The prevalence 

 of the Colorado potato beetle in Georgia at the present time led many 

 of the cotton growers to think that this plant was being attacked by 

 the Colorado potato beetle. Upon receiving specimens of the insect 

 injuring cotton, it proved to be IRppodamla convergens, the specimens 

 received being mostly in the larval and pupal conditions. For some 

 time something over twenty letters a da}^ were received from cotton 

 growers concerning this insect. He had made two or three trips to 

 the cotton fields to observe this species and found that it occurred in 

 very extraordinary numbers; thousands of them on the cotton plants. 

 There would be as many as a dozen or fifteen or even twenty larvae 

 and pupa? of this ladybird on one tip of the plant, perhaps no more 

 than 3 inches long. There were also present larva? of certain lace- 

 winged files, but he considered this ladybird beetle the principal agent 

 in checking the outbreak of the cotton aphis. 



Mr. Fiske further stated that both he and Mr. Scott had been giv- 

 ing considerable attention to the ladybirds as found in Georgia and 

 hoped soon to be able to publish a paper on them. One species, an 

 Exocomm, had been reported as feeding on scale insects, and he was 

 informed, he thought by Mr. Schwarz, that this genus was one that 

 fed almost exclusively on scale insects. He had observed this species 

 frequently, and so far it had occurred largely on plant-lice and only 

 occasionally on scale insects. 



Mr. Burgess remarked in reference to Chilocorus hivulnerus that he 

 had attempted to rear it a number of times, but had been unable to do 

 so. This species appeared to feed on plant-lice, and when plant- lice 

 eggs were offered the beetles early in the spring they were devoured 

 quite greedily. In his own experiments he had been able to obtain 

 only two or three eggs of this species, and they had been deposited on 

 a twig placed in a jar. Only one of these eggs had hatched, and this 

 was how he had obtained the record indicated, of the length of the egg- 

 stage. 



The next paper, presented by Mr. F. L. AVashburn, was as follows: 

 DISTRIBUTION OF THE CHINCH BUG IN MINNESOTA. 



By F. L. "Washburn, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 



From observations made last summer, from reports of correspond- 

 ents, and from press articles it is evident that the chinch bug has 

 been this season confined to the southeastern, south central, and 

 southern portions of the State. Careful examination of Professor 

 Lugger's past reports indicates that this is not a condition of affairs 



