December. '15] 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES 



551 



Another Nodule-Destroying Beetle. Records of insect larvae which destroy- 

 the root nodules of legumes are apparently scarce. In addition to the Chrysomelid, 

 Cerotoma trifurcata (pp. 261-266), it seems worth while to record an Otiorhjuchid, 

 Eudiagogus rosenschoeldi Fahrs. Late in August, 1913, the writer found that the 

 nodules on the roots of Sesbania macrocarpa growing at Greenwood, Miss., were 

 injured, but the insect which caused the damage was not present. The injury to 

 the nodules was characteristically different from that caused by Cerotoma, and in 

 view of the fact that adults of Eudiagogus rosenschoeldi had been previously observed 

 feeding on the fohage of this plant, it seemed strongly probable that the larvae of 

 this beetle were responsible. During the following year Mr. C. F. Turner of the 

 Bureau of Entomology found the larvae responsible for this injury. He reared the 

 adults and they proved to be the species suspected. 



The nodules on the roots of this plant are very numerous and almost spherical. 

 The larvae are much more robust than those of Cerotoma, and they gnaw iato one 

 side of a nodule and out on the opposite side. All that is left of the nodule is a con- 

 vex ring of epidermal tissue. When these injured nodules were first observed, 

 practically all on the plants had been destroyed in this way. The larvae probably 

 feed on the roots as well. 



Adults of this beetle have been taken during the winter hibernating in clumps 

 of Andropogon virginicus and between the husks and under the leaf sheaths of standing 

 corn stalks. The host plant does not appear above ground until May and adults 

 have not been observed between the last of June and the middle of August. Adults 

 were taken August 15 at Clarksdale, Miss.; August 23, at Ehzabeth, Miss.; August 

 28, at Hardee, ]\Iiss., where the}' were found in copulo, and at West Memphis, Ark., 

 September 23. There is probably but one generation a year in this region. 



The beetle has been recorded as feeding on Cassia occidentalis, C. oUusifolia, 

 Sesbania vesicaria, and on Xanthoxylum clavaherculis (see Pierce, W. D., "On the 

 Biologies of the Rhynchophora of North America," University of Nebraska, 1907, 

 pp. 256-257, and Mitchell, J. D., and Pierce, W. D., "The Weevils of Victoria 

 County, Texas," Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Vol. 13, 1911, p. 50). Its principal hosts 

 are thus seen to be legumes. While it is not known to damage cultivated species, 

 the fact that it does defoHate Xanthoxylum would indicate that it is capable of vary- 

 ing its food plants. With the draining of the swamps and the decrease in its native 

 hosts, it may some time become a pest, especially upon some of the introduced forage 

 plants. 



W. R. McCoNNELL, 



Bureau of Entomology. 



Notes on Some Unusual Nursery Insects. Pseudococcus kraunhioe ^ Kuwana 

 (Homop.). This mealy bug was found during July, 1915, at Rutherford, N. J., on 

 Taxus cuspidata brevifolia growing in a nursery. It had evidently been established 

 for several years and only recently became abundant enough to cause noticeable 

 injury. Mrs. Fernald, in her catalog of the " Coccidae of the World, " gives its habitat 

 as Japan and host plant as Kraunhia floribunda. Some of the infested plants at 

 Rutherford originally came from Japan. 



Antonina crawi^ Ckll. (Homop.). This insect, known as the cottony bamboo scale, 

 was taken in considerable numbers at Riverton, N. J., August 6, 1915, on Bambusa 

 henonis and Bambusa aiirea, to which it was doing considerable damage by collecting 

 in large colonies in the leaf axils of the young shoots or canes. This also is a Japanese 

 species which occurs in Cahfornia. 



1 Identified by Mr. Rust of the U. S. Bur. Ent. 



