BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE 47 
Earworm Control in Sweet Corn. K-47<>. issued in May. and Com ml 
of Earworms in Corn by Fumigation, E-485, Issued in July 1939. 
Although these methods are fully effective in their present state of 
development only for such ears as possess fairly long, tight husks, it 
is believed that improvements now under way will result in the near 
future in rendering these methods applicable to ears of average 
■character. 
INSECTS ATTACKING FORAGE CROPS 
An insect, pest of the sweetclovers and possibly also of alfalfa, 
H 11 pera brunneipennis Boh., new to the United States, was discovered 
at Yuma, Ariz., in April 1939 by entomological workers of the Arizona 
Agricultural Experiment Station. This insect, native to northern 
Africa, is very closely related to the alfalfa weevil now generally dis- 
tributed throughout the Great Basin States, but apparently the new 
weevil is adapted to a subtropical environment. On the approach of 
the hot summer season it entered a state of estivation. 
A survey to determine the distribution of the insect was immedi- 
ately conducted, which revealed that the species was present in alfalfa, 
both in Arizona and in California, in the immediate environment of 
the Yuma irrigated section. An entomologist was detailed to study 
the biology of this new pest. 
Preliminary observations indicate that this insect prefers the sweet- 
clovers and fenugreek to alfalfa. 
As the Yuma Valley is a commercial alfalfa-seed-producing area, 
an early requirement in connection with this infestation was the 
determination of the liability of dispersion of this pest through ship- 
ments of alfalfa hay and seed sent out of the infested area. It was 
found that, because of the small size of the alfalfa seed in comparison 
with the size of the adult insect, all the adults which passed into the 
threshing machine were killed. The indications are that very little 
danger is involved in such shipments. Methods of fumigating alfalfa 
hay for safe shipment are being developed. 
In August 1938 a commercial seed analyst in Oregon discovered, in 
vetch seed originating in Clackamas County, live specimens of the 
vetch weevil (Bruchus brachialis Fahr.), an insect of foreign origin 
previously known in this country only from the Atlantic Coast States. 
This bruchid, a serious pest of vetch seed, lays its eggs on the young 
pods, and the resulting grubs enter the growing pods and destroy the 
developing seed. As the Willamette Valley of Oregon is the most 
important vetch-seed-producing area in the United States, the infesta- 
tion of this area at once aroused great interest, but as the adult bruchid 
emerges from the seed late in July and early in August and immedi- 
ately seeks hibernating quarters, which are as yet unknown, the delimi- 
tation of the area infested by the insect was necessarily deferred until 
the summer of 1939. A survey recently completed shows that this pest 
now is present in eight counties in Oregon, including practically all 
the Willamette Valley, and four counties in southern Washington. 
Preliminary studies of the vetch weevil already conducted, mainly 
in North Carolina, indicate that, although this insect attacks several 
of the commercially important varieties of vetch, other varieties are 
either entirely immune or strongly resistant to its attack. Although 
this insect does not injure vetch for hay purposes, if it should prove 
