- 3 - 
were zanzfbarenels , cambodgenslB , amd a comm\mity selec- 
tion cadled "Wagner,' The ca^e tests indicated that grasshoppers 
live fairly well— some as long as 66 days — on sua exclusive diet of 
castor-hean foliage and petioles. Observations on feeding showed 
that grasshoppers did not relish any part of the castor-hean pletnta. 
Some individuals refused to eat the foliage and grew weaker from lack 
of food, >diile others, either from weakness or aild poisoning, appeared 
to he partly paralyzed, in which condition th«y often survived as 
long as 3 days. The supposition that castor-beans have an attractive 
value may have arisen from seeing grasshoppers and other insects ali^t 
on these plants, which grow tall, almost treelike, and offer perches, 
shade, and a certain amount of protection from enemies. Food attractive- 
ness is not necessarily involved when insects perch on the stems or 
leaves. It was concluded that "castor-beans cannot be used as a trap 
crop because th^ are not more attractive to grasshoppers and other 
common pests than the usual crop food plant. While castor-beans are 
apparently objectionable to grasshoppers, crops cannot be adequately 
protected by border or strip plantings because of the easy mobility of 
the hoppers. No evidence of any value of castor-beans for poisoning, 
repelling, or trapping grasKhoppere or any other crop insect pest was ob- 
served during the season of 1932. No real protection was observed in 
fara plantings and none was reported by farmers,* A long list of insects 
found on castor-bean plants in Kansas was also published. — Smith , 
The erroneous idea has been widely held that grasshoppers may be 
poisoned by planting castor-beans around and through the crops to be 
protected, Ixperiments conducted by the United States Bureeu of Ento- 
mology and Plant CJuarantine and several State experiment stations in- 
dicate that this practice has no value. When given no food other than 
castor-bean foliage, grasshoppers will eat sparingly of it and will die 
in about the same time as when given no food. When they are given a 
choice, other plants are preferred. Young grasshoppers have been reared 
to the winged stage in cages containing growing castor-bean and oat 
plants. They thrived on the oats, but did no more than nibble on the 
castor-beans although they grew to maturity on them,— P-orker (39) • 
According to a compilation on the "Insects of the Castor-Bean," 
this plant has attracted attention as an alleged killing agent for 
insects, particularly grasshoppers and the Japanese beetle, but the 
literature contains only a few records of insects being poisoned by 
feeding on the plant,— l^ers (35) . 
Tests in Iowa gave no evidence that grasshoppers are attracted 
to castor-bean plants. Common crop plants were selected in prefer- 
ence to the eight varieties of Riclnus tested in cages. Neither was 
there any evidence of a repellent effect, because the grasshoppers 
used in these tests often rested on the plants, and under field condi- 
tions grasshoppers have been observed to spend the night resting on 
castor-bean plants and then to move in the morning to other plants to 
