110 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



much the same. When the young plants are first transplanted their 

 leaves wilt and lie upon the ground. It is at this stage that the beetles 

 do the injury; lying upon their backs upon the ground they perforate 

 the leaves and feed thereon. A species belonging to the Tenebrio- 

 riida? seems to be the chief offender. This has been determined as 

 Blapstinus metallicus Fab. by Mr. E. A. Schwarz, who says that it 

 is a species quite generally distributed through the South. 



Two other species found similarly working, but in numbers insuffi- 

 cient to be of economic importance, have been determined as Epiccerus 

 formic! olosus Boh., of the family Otiorhynchidse, and Opatrwus notus 

 Say, another tenebrionid. 



THE TOBACCO LEAF-MIXER OR SPLITWORM. 



(PlitJioriniaa operculella Zell.) 



This insect seems to be of no economic importance whatever in 

 Gadsden County, only four or five affected leaves being noticed 

 while at Quincy. At Dade City, in Pasco County, it has, however, 

 become the most important insect pest with which the tobacco planter 

 has to deal. The writer has been informed by Mr. W. W. Cobey 

 that during the season of 1906 an average of no less than two leaves 

 per plant has been thus affected. 



CUTWORMS AXD WIREWORMS. 



The cutworms (Noctuidse) were observed as especially injurious 

 on one plantation. They are not confined in their work to the newly 

 transplanted plants, but even attack plants a foot high with stalks 

 one-fourth to one-half of an inch in diameter. Neither do they con- 

 fine their feeding to the portion of the plant at or below the surface, 

 but often crawl up the stalk. A number of plants examined were 

 found to have been cut off 2 inches above the ground. In freshly 

 cut stalks the worm can always be found near the stalk and de- 

 stroyed. 



Wireworms belonging to a species of Drasterius were found very 

 destructive in an 8-acre field of sun tobacco on which oats and cow- 

 peas had been grown the previous season. On account of their feed- 

 ing near the surface on the stems of the young plants, boring up and 

 down in the pith, a nearly complete resetting of the field was neces- 

 sary. A search in the soil about a wilted plant would reveal one and 

 in some cases several white wireworms from one-half to 1 inch in 

 length. 



In Wisconsin, Paris green, and in Ohio, turpentine, has been used 

 in the water when setting as a repellent for cutworms. As an experi- 

 ment with the wireworms, 1 quart of kerosene emulsion to a cask of 

 water was tried, each plant being watered. As no further injury 





