34 BULLETIN 1426, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
alfalfa fields. Fields of alfalfa in the Willamette Valley have fre- 
quently been examined, but no root borers have been found there 
on alfalfa roots, even when they were close to badly infested clover 
roots. At Murray, Utah, repeated examination of large numbers 
of alfalfa roots, even in badly infested clover fields, by T. H. Parks, 
K.J. Vosler, and P. H. Hertzog, resulted in the discovery August 
23, 1911, by Hertzog, of but one pupa of a clover root borer on 
an alfalfa root. H. L. Parker tried unsuccessfully to transfer 
the larve from clover to alfalfa roots at Hagerstown, Md. It 
seems improbable that the clover root borer will become a serious 
pest of alfalfa, as the rapidly growing, tough roots of alfalfa do not 
appear well adapted to the successful propagation of the species. 
Adult root borers were found by C. W. Creel attacking a field of 
common vetch near Junction City, Oree., May 24, 1918. Two 
out of ten roots examined were infested and some roots were almost 
girdled by the burrows of the adults. There were no signs of imma- 
ture stages, and the vetch roots probably would not be sufficiently 
large to serve as a breeding place for coot borers. 
Root borer adults were found in burrows in the crowns of Lupinus 
sp. near Albany, Oreg., on May 29,1919. The burrows were super- 
ficial and more in the stems than in the roots. 
F. M. Webster noted an attack by clover root borers in pea vines 
at Wooster, Ohio, June 30, 1892. In this case the burrows were in 
the stems, near the ground. A. L. Lovett, of the Oregon Agricultural 
College, reported ” that commercial plantings of garden peas over a 
limited area in Marion County, Oreg., were damaged by clover root 
borers to the extent of 60 per cent of the crop on June 2, 1922. 
Professer Lovett noted that these plantings were adjacent to fields 
of old, abandoned clover heavily infested by root borers. 
On April 4, 1922, at Forest Grove, Max M. Reeher found a plant 
of Scotch broom, Cytisus scoparvus, with a stem about one inch in 
diameter and turning yellowish on the terminal twigs, which con- 
tained a typical bark-beetle burrow in the soft wood under the green 
bark. This mine was some distance up the stem, but below any 
branches. The gallery was two-armed, the branches extending in 
opposite directions from the entrance. This burrow was much dis- 
colored and must have been formed some time in the previous sea- 
son, and perhaps represented a true hibernation burrow (22, p. 203), 
as there were no signs of reproductive activity. The bark beetle 
was accidentally mutilated with a knife, only a part of the thorax, the 
legs, and the head being recovered. These parts had all the charac- 
ters of Hylastinus, and after careful comparison of legs and antennee 
mounted in balsam, the specimen was determined by the writer as 
Hylastinus obscurus. Scotch broom from the same locality and else- 
where has been examined several times since this discovery, but with- 
out finding any other borers or signs of their work. Furze, Ulex 
europaeus, has also been examined near Portland, Oreg., and Seattle, 
Wash., but no Hylastinus has been found upon this plant. 
Swaine (41, p. 73) recorded the occurrence of this species on ‘‘ White 
Dutch clover, and sainfoin (cutting tunnels but not breeding) in Can- 
ada.”’ Bedel (2), Nérdlinger (33, p. 234) and Chapman (6) recorded 
Hylastinus obscurus as astem miner on (Spartium) Cytisus scoparvus; 
10 Tn correspondence, published by Professor Lovett’s permission. 
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