54 ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



The punctures in the cotton plants brought by Mr. Mayer were later 

 identified as having been made by the species referred to. 



On June 15 a number of adults were taken in a field of alfalfa at 

 Vanceville, 7 miles north of Shreveport, and here, for the first time, 

 the empty pupal cases were found. These occurred singly in various 

 parts of the field, sometimes upon the ground, but more often cling- 

 ing to the alfalfa plants a few inches above the ground. Their con- 

 dition indicated that the adults had emerged from them not more 

 than a few days previous. 



About the middle of June newspaper reports told of serious damage 

 to corn and cotton crops in the Ouachita Valley by " locusts," and 

 these reports were of so unusual a nature that Messrs. E. S. Hardy 

 and J. B. Garrett, assistant entomologists in the employ of the com- 

 mission, were dispatched to that region to make an investigation. 

 Mr. Hardy repaired to Columbia, Caldwell Parish, and Mr. Garrett 

 to Logtown, Ouachita Parish, each conducting his investigation in- 

 dependently of the other. Neither gentleman was apprised of the 

 findings of the other until after the reports of both had been sub- 

 mitted, and on all features of the problem which came under the 

 observation of both their reports were identical. Local conditions, 

 however, made it possible for each of the investigators to observe 

 phases of the situation inaccessible to the other, and from the reports 

 of both these gentlemen the following notes are taken. 



The area of principal damage was found to extend from a short 

 distance south of Monroe to a point several miles south of Columbia, 

 and was confined, so far as could be learned, to the alluvial lands of 

 the Ouachita Valley. 



Near Logtown Mr. Garrett found the damage to both cotton and 

 corn to be general over the farm of several hundred acres upon 

 which he made his observations, the owner of the plantation estimat- 

 ing that about *20 per cent of his young cotton plants had been killed 

 as a result of the egg punctures of the Cicada. Through this sec- 

 tion and as far north as Monroe Mr. Garrett observed the insects in 

 such abundance that they were continually seen flying against the 

 windows of moving passenger trains. 



In the vicinity of Columbia Mr. Hardy found the insect even more 

 abundant and destructive. Upon one farm a cotton field was found 

 in which the damage was so heavy that the owner found it necessary 

 to plow the field and make a second planting, and on a large planta- 

 tion the injury over the major portion was such as to render the 

 prospects for a crop very uncertain. 



Mr. I. C. Bridges, owner of a large plantation near Columbia, 

 stated that the Cicada had done more or less damage each >eason for 

 the past twenty years, but had not at any time been as destructive as 



