60 



economic entomologist must use the best-known common name, and 

 that it would be no disadvantage for the scientific name of the insect 

 to appear in publication. 



Mr. Sanderson believed that the scientific name should be placed at 

 the end of the publication, and that the work of the committee would 

 be of great value. It is sometimes necessary to change the common 

 names of insects, and this matter should be referred to such a 

 committee. 



Mr. Osborn stated his opinion that the time had come to make a 

 beginning on this line of work, and offered the following resolution, 

 which was adopted : 



Resolved, That a standing -cominittee of three be appointed, to be called a 

 committee on nomenclature, members to hold office three years, one changing 

 each year, to consider and recommend adoptions and changes of names in use in 

 economic entomology; this committee being empowered to secure cooperation of 

 entomologists in various parts of the world,, as they may find advisable. 



The following committee was appointed by the Chair: Mr. Osborn, 

 three years; Mr. Gillette, two years; Mr. Webster, one year. 

 Mr. Piper read a brief paper, entitled : 



NOTES ON PERANABRUS SCABRICOLLIS. 



By C. V. Piper. Washington, D. C. 



This large locustid has periodical!}' for a decade caused more or less 

 damage to the wheat fields in Douglas County, Wash. , in a limited 

 area encompassed in a radius of 30 miles. In past outbreaks the 

 insects seem to have bred mainly in the bottoms of the large canyons 

 known as Moses Coulee and Grand Coulee, which are 800 to 1,000 

 feet lower than the plateau where wheat is grown. In years when 

 drought has caused a scarcity of food in the coulees the insects have 

 invaded the wheat fields in great armies and, while the country was 

 sparsely settled, ruined many isolated crops. After the country 

 became well settled the farmers resorted to ditching to control the 

 insect, with perfect success. Indeed, it appears that along Moses 

 Coulee this process has reduced the numbers of the insects so 

 greatly that for some years past they have caused no apprehension. 

 It is stated by reliable farmers near the coulee that the insects started 

 to return to the lower altitudes when ready to oviposit, and that by 

 ditching against this return very few of the invading army escaped. 

 Whether the insects actually do return in an army to the coulees to 

 oviposit is questionable. This conclusion of the farmers is based 

 largely on the fact that the insects occur every year in the coulee 

 bottom, and only when their numbers make food scarce do they 

 migrate out of the canyon to the plateau above. 



