LIBRARY 
%TATE PLANT BOARD 
E-469 March 1939 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine 
INSECTS OF THE CASTOR-BEAN 
(Compiled from the literature and 
from the records of the Insect Pest Survey)* 
By Gertrude Myers, Division of Insect Pest Survey 
and Information 
Introduction 
The castor-bean plant (R icinus communis L.) is distributed through- 
out the tropical and subtropical world. It grows wild as well as under 
cultivation, reaching a height of from 30 to 40 feet. In the Tropics it is 
a perennial, but in the Temperate Zones it becomes an annual, attaining a 
height of only 8 or 12 feet. 
British India is the chief region where the castor-bean is culti- 
vated commercially; it produces 90 percent of the world's output of castor- 
beans. The plant is also cultivated in the Malay Peninsula, Indo-China, 
Java, Manchuria, Italy, northern and central Africa, Hawaii, some of the 
West Indian Islands, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States. 
In the United States the plant is cultivated in eastern Kansas, 
Oklahoma, western Missouri, and southwestern Illinois. In 1918, when the 
cultivation of the plant was temporarily stimulated by a demand for the oil 
as a lubricant for war machines, considerable acreage was planted in Florida 
and some in California. 
The castor-bean is grown principally for the oil, but it is also used 
in coloring of cotton goods and as a medicine. It is extensively grown as an 
ornamental. The seeds contain a poisonous principle, ricinin, most of which 
is retained in the pomeice cifter the oil has been pressed out. 
*This compilation of records was made from the published litera- 
ture, unpublished manuscripts by J . E. Graf and Max Kisliuk on their work 
in Florida in 1918, and the files of the Insect Pest Survey. The notes 
from Costa Rica were made by C. H. Ballou. As so many papers were reviewed 
for this article, it is not deemed practical to prepare a bibliography. 
All the abstracts and references are in the files of the Insect Pest Survey 
and copies of them may be obtained upon request. 
UBRARY 
STATC PUaKT BOARD 
