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SEED COEN MAG-GOT 
An infestation in the red cedar seedbeds of the Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics nursery near Lebanon, Tenn. , caused some loss of young seedlings and 
consWerrtlo concern earlv in the spring ef 1938. Hoot damage, hy vhat was 
later found to -be this insect, was first investigated in thrs nursery late In 
the spring of I937i after the insects had disappeared from the beds. (3. H. 
Wilf ord, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S. 3. A.) 
A CECIDOMTIID INJURING RHODODENDRONS 
In Rhode Island some nurserymen grow rhododendrons from seed and when 
the plants are 3 years old known varieties are grafted on to their roots. These 
plants are forced in coldframes and nursery beds and usually put on two or three 
sets of new sprouts .and leaves each year. Beginning with the second set of 
tender leaves late in June or early in July, .a great .amount of injury was caused 
by the larvae of an unidentified cecidonyiid. The tender leaves turn black .and 
dry up or .are badly deformed, and there is considerable retardation of growth. 
There is an overlapping of generations of the insect during the summer, and 
apparently it is hibernating as a full-grown larva in the soil, (J. V. Schaffner, 
Jr., Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U. S. D. A.) 
MATSUCOCCUS SCALE 
Observations during the last 2 years ( 1937—3^ ) on Matsucoccus sp. on pitch 
pine in the Northeastern .States indicate that populations of the insect have in- 
creased in the areas inspected. Analyses of data from pitch pine plots in 
Pennsylvania show that large numbers of twigs and leaders, and in seme instances 
whole trees, have been killed by the insect, (R. C. Brown, Bureau of Entomology 
and Plant Quarantine, U. S. D. A.) 
EUROPEAN EARWIG 
Records of 1933 show that Eorf icula aur icul aria L. is becoming widely 
dispersed in southern New England. Eirst found in Newport, R. I., many years 
ago, it is now known to occur in Pall River, New Bedford, and Taunton, Mass., and 
in Connecticut it ™as recently found at New Haven bv W. E. Britton, (R, C, 
Brown, Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, U, S. D. A.) 
JAPANESE BEETLE 
The winter of 1937-33 was one of the mildest in years throughout, the pres- 
ent area of general distribution of the Japanese beetle. As a resrilt, so far as 
could be determined, there was no appreciable winter mortality of the overwinter- 
ing stage of the beetle. In the spring of 1933 an unusually warm early period 
was followed by a cooler period in May and June, as n result of which, the rapid 
early season larval development was slowed down to such an extent that general 
emergence of adult beetles' was somewhat later than normal. Weather conditions 
during July and early in August were exceedingly favorable for. the adult stage 
of the beetle; the succession of cloudy days with frequent rains prolonged the 
normal summer life period of the beetle population so that the natural drop in 
population, owing to the dying off of the beetles, which customarily becomes 
appreciable early in August, was delayed for approximately 2 weeks, Eor the same 
reason, the normal beetle-feeding period ’was correspondingly prolonged. On the 
