Bur. Ent. & P. Q. Issued December 1941 
United States Department of Agriculture 
BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 
SERVICE AND REGULATORY ANNOUNCEMENTS 
LIST OF INTERCEPTED PLANT PESTS, 1940 
(List of Pests Recorded During the Period July 1, 1939, to June 30, 1940, In- 
clusive, as Intercepted in, on, or with Plants and Plant Products Entering 
United States Territory.) 
INTRODUCTION 
This report, covering the twenty-seventh year for which lists of interceptions 
have been issued, shows a decided change in arrangement of the detailed tabular 
information regarding those species believed to be of sufficient interest to warrant 
such presentation. Under the new arrangement the detailed data are given 
under the names of the pests and indexed under the names of the hosts and 
under the countries of origin instead of being given under the countries of origin 
without any indexing. 
This change is being made so that the list will be more serviceable under 
present-day conditions. When the first list of interceptions was issued on 
February 2, 1914, covering the period July 1 to December 31, 1913, 84 percent 
of the interceptions listed were made by State quarantine officers. Federal 
quarantine inspectors were located in Washington only, and interception data 
were assembled and used on a country-of-origin basis. Data were so few that 
all could be reviewed quickly regardless of the arrangement used. Today most 
of the interceptions are made by Federal inspectors who are stationed at numerous 
maritime and border ports; interceptions are indexed in the Washington office 
under pest, host, and country of origin, but these files are not available to the 
major part of the personnel except by correspondence; and the pest-and-host 
relationship is more important than the country of origin, since rapid transporta- 
tion of pests with host materials has made distribution data less stable than they 
were formerly. 
In an effort to meet the needs of the organization as a whole, and of cooperating 
agencies and specialists as well, an index to previous interceptions has been pre- 
pared and is being checked prior to expected publication. This index has alpha- 
betical lists of intercepted insects and pathogens, with alphabetical lists of the 
hosts in, on, or with which they were intercepted and alphabetical lists ot the coun- 
tries of origin. Hosts are listed alphabetically also and the pests found associated 
with them are indicated. The new arrangement of the annual list is not only 
more serviceable of itself but will make it usable as an annual supplement to the 
cumulated index when it becomes available. 
With so much of the data cross-indexed it is felt that relatively little text is 
needed to enable readers to find information of special interest to them. 
Following the introduction there are brief references to a few of the more 
interesting findings, as well as summaries of the interceptions of some of the species 
too common to be included in the detailed tables, and ot incompletely determined 
pests. 
As usual, the records summarized in this report cover determinations of pests 
intercepted in, on, or with plants and plant products (1) imported, (2) offered for 
but refused entry, (3) held as ships' stores, etc., and hence not imported through 
customs, (4) offered for entry tor immediate export or for immediate transporta- 
tion and exportation in bond, and (5) in domestic shipments reaching the mainland 
from Hawaii and Puerto Rico. 
Collections made late in the year are often included in the report for the follow- 
ing year, especially if not determined immediately. The data on which this paper 
is based are on file in Washington, D. C. In addition to routine reports and deter- 
minations by the personnel of this Bureau, State and customs officials furnish 
considerable information. Staffs of specialists maintained by the States of Cali- 
400127 — 41 1 1 
