UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
BULLETIN No. 254 
Contribution from the Bureau of Entomology 
L. O. HOWARD, Chief ^TW^^O, 
P Washington; D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER June 29, 1915. 
1__ 
THE SHARP-HEADED GRAIN LEAFHOPPER. 
B^Edmund H. Gibson, Entomological Assistant, Cereal and Forage Insect 
Investigations. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The sharp-headed grain jassid or leafhopper (Draeculaceplidla mol- 
lipes Say) has long been known to infest cereal and forage crops, 
principally grains and grasses. It is probably one of the most com- 
monly observed insects of the farm, ranging throughout practically 
the entire United States. However, as Prof. Herbert Osborn re- 
marks, 1 "it seems to have received much less notice from the economic 
standpoint than it merits." 
The observations and facts set forth in this paper are the result of 
an entire year's work on the species in the Salt River Valley of Ari- 
zona during 1914, together with occasional observations elsewhere. 
With these data have been included the results of various miscella- 
neous observations made by other assistants engaged in cereal and 
forage insect investigations in the Bureau of Entomology. 
The most extended account of this species previously published is 
included by Prof. Herbert Osborn 1 in Bulletin 108 of the Bureau 
of Entomology, and the aim of the present paper is to supplement 
Prof. Osborn' s excellent treatise from which the author has freely 
quoted. The sharp-headed grain jassid was described by Say in 1831, 
mentioned by Dr. Asa Fitch in his list of insects in 1851, and was 
commented upon by Prof. P. R. Uhler in 1884. Prof. H. Garman 
describes it as a corn pest in 1890 in the second Annual Report of 
the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station, and Prof. Osborn 
gave an account of the species in Bulletin 22, Division of Entomology, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, and in 1891, 1892, and 1897 added 
materially to the knowledge of the species, his account in 1912 being 
the last published treatise on the species. 
1 Osborn, Herbert. Leafhoppers affecting cereals, grasses, and forage crops. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. 
Ent., Bui. 108, 123 p., 29 fig., 4 pi., Sept. 12, 1912. See p. 56. 
Note.— This paper is of interest to entomologists throughout the United States. 
93349°— Bull. 254 15 
