4 BULLETIN 889, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Stinging nettle ( Urtiwca dioica)... ...----------- F. H. Chittenden. 
Tall bellflower (Campanula americana) . . . .....-C. M. Weed. 
Horse-weed (Ambrosia trifida)...-.------------ F. H. Chittenden. 
Ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiaefolia)....-....-.-- C. M. Weed. 
Daisy (Leucanthenumnsp.) 2-6-6 eee A. A. Girault. 
Wheat grass (Agropyron sp:)) >=. 2222-- 222-52 oe 
Marsh grass (Spartina michauriana) ...-.------ 16: N. Ainslie. 
Burdock (Archiumi minus) == -2e-  o ae s  a eanicers 
Malva Cllalua rotundifolia) a2 oe aa e I. H. Gates. 
Marsh grass (Spartina cynosuroides)........------ P. Hayhurst. 
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF THE INSECT TO ALFALFA AND CLOVER. 
A great many farmers in the alfalfa-growing sections of the country, 
especially those of the Southern and Southwestern States, do not 
appreciate to how great an extent this borer is responsible, at certain 
times, for the poor, woody quality of their alfalfa hay. Nor do farm- 
ers in the eastern section of the country appreciate the small but 
nevertheless direct damage this borer exerts upon the productiveness 
of red and mammoth clovers. 
It is not at all surprising that this condition exists, for the borer is 
hidden from view at all times, traveling up and down the center of an 
alfalfa stalk where the adult deposited the egg, and devouring the 
entire center of the stem, leaving a woody fibrous stalk that is de- 
ficient in foliage and high in crude fiber content. An infested stalk 
of alfalfa, during the heat of the day, will often show wilting from 
lack of a proper amount of water reaching the plant. This, of course, 
checks plant growth, and the wilting will usually cause the lateral 
leaves to fall; hence, an infested plant will have lost a large amount of 
its foliage. : 
In 1909, Folsom (16) said: ‘‘Were this insect more numerous it 
might gradually develop into a pest of considerable importance.” 
In the southwestern United States, where it is widely distributed, the 
extent of the damage may be realized when we know that as high as 
85 per cent of the stalks in an alfalfa field often are infested with this 
borer. This means that 85 per cent of the hay crop in that field will 
have stalks of a woody nature. It also means that a certain per- 
centage of these stalks will have broken off and fallen and probably 
entirely lost their foliage. The result isa hay crop lacking leaves, high 
in crude fiber, and of a grade altogether inferior to that which might 
have been produced had this insect not been present. 
Regarding the effect of the feeding of the larva on a clover stem, 
Comstock (8, p. 199) says: 
While they do not kill the stem outright, they gradually weaken it and eventually 
cause its destruction, having also, of course, a very injurious effect upon the maturing 
of the seed. 
Ss 
