-235- 
TBUCX - CROP INSECTS 
GENERAL FEEDERS 
WIREWORMS (Pheletos sp.} 
Washington M. C. Lane (Bureau of Entomology). "In the company of Chief 
Horticultural Inspector W. L. Close, I spent the 18th of July 
in visiting as many farms as possible around Outlook and Spiny- 
side, Washington, where the damage to potatoes was reported-worst 
last fall. Wireworms were easily found tunneling at this time 
in the half-grown potatoes and also in the stems of the plants 
below the surfa c e. They were also found working near tops of 
half-grown sugar beets and severing the simple roots of the small 
rutabagas. Many were- found feeding at the crowns of a succulent 
water grass common in the fields. On talking with several promi- 
nent farmers of this district, one having lived there for 29 years, 
I gathered that the wireworms have gradually become worse in the 
last 6 or 7 years, attacking corn, potatoes, and sugar beets 
mostly. The opinion here v;as that alfalfa was not attacked to 
any great extent and that fields of recently plowed alfalfa did 
not become badly infested with wireworms for at least two or 
three years. Later I found a badly infested field of potatoes 
that had been in alfalfa last year and for a long time previous- 
ly. There is no doubt but. that the wireworms are becoming; more 
numerous and injuring the above-mentioned crops to a great extent 
in their early growth, but the main source of loss in the opinion 
of all talked with, is the lowering of the grade of the potatoes 
at market tir,:e, due to the tunnels of the wireworms. This is a 
very material loss and affects the growers directly. The estimat- 
ed crop of this year will sell at very nearly $1,000,000. Mr. Zun- 
dcl, pathologist of the Washington State College, estimates that 
the loss occasioned by wireworms and disease this year will amount 
to nearly %>250,000 in the Yakima Valley. He has been over the 
Indian Reservation around Wapato and reports the same conditions 
as^I found around Snnnyside." 
BLISTER BEETLES (Eoicauta spp.) 
Mississippi S. W. Harned (September 10). "Blister beetles still continue to 
attract attention by their abundance on various kinds of crops 
throughout Mississippi." 
FIRE AET ( Solenor>sis peminata Fab. ) 
Louisiana T. H. Jones (September 10). "Specimens of this ant were received 
oh September 7 from a correspondent at Burtville, with report 
that they were carrying away garden seed after these had been 
planted. This species is quite commonly complained of as causing 
such damage and also girdling young vegetable plants at the surface 
of the ground . " 
POTATO 
COLORADO POTATO BEETLE ( Leptinotarsa decern! incata Say) 
Wisconsin S. B. Frac:ter (September 23). "Overran potato fields, gardens, 
sidewalks, and houses in northern counties." 
