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species. Beetles also deposited fertile eggs when confined exclusively on 
moistened peanut hay and moistened tissue paper. Unfed beetles have not 
deposited fertile eggs. Under laboratory conditions adults have fed upon 
every kind of foliage tested that they were physically able to cut with 
their mandibles. Apparently the adult cannot feed upon such foliage as 
bear grass which has hard fibrous margins, and they also have much difficulty 
in feeding upon such plants as sugarcane. The beetles are unable to cut the 
hard margin of the older leaves of American holly but feed readily on the 
young tender leaves. In the field adults prefer to feed on plants of medium 
pilosity rather than on plants with glabrous stems and foliage or plants 
that are extremely pilose; they also prefer broad-leaved plants to small- 
leaved plants. 
Host plants of t he larvae . — Under field conditions the larvae have 
been observed to feed upon 175 species of plants. Some of the most common 
host plants in the Florala area are as follows: Blackberry, broomsedge, 
Caesar 's-weed, careless-weed, carrot, chrysanthemum, chufa, cocklebur, 
corn, cotton, cowpea, cudweed, curled-dock, false-indigo, hair-grass, Johnson 
grass, Mexican-clover, mustard, oat, plantain, ragweed, peanut, sickle-pod, 
strawberry, sweetpotato, velvetbean, white clover, and Irish potato. 
Larvae have been taken feeding on peach seeds and pecan and tung 
nuts after the seeds had swollen and burst the hard covering. Larvae feed 
to a certain extent on woody plants such as peach, pecan, and willow, but 
as yet no case of serious damage to other than seedlings has been observed. 
The Effect of Topography and Soil Type on Infestations 
In the Florala area infestations occur not only in the cultivated 
fields but also in the woodlands, pastures, fence rows, and abandoned farms. 
The host range of this insect is such that it is highly probable that it 
can subsist and develop on wild host plants in noncultivated areas. Thus 
far the highest populations found in the Florala area have been in cultivated 
fields. This may be due to the presence of certain host plants but no doubt 
is also due to some extent to the permeability of the soil. In noncultivated 
areas adjoining infested fields the larval population in November 1938 
ranged as high as 31 per square yard in woodlands, 73 per square yard in 
pastures, 61 per square yard on fence rows, and 31 per square yard in bay- 
heads . 
In the Florala area soil types seem to have had very little effect, 
since infestations of approximately equal intensity have occurred on clay, 
loam, and sandy soils. To date the greatest damage has occurred on the 
higher well-drained portions of the infested fields. The infestation in the 
vicinity of New Orleans, La., is widespread, but the beetle population is 
light when compared with the Florala area. The cause of this lighter in- 
festation at New Orleans has not been determined. It is probable that the 
heavy soil at New Orleans is not so favorable for the insect's development 
as the lighter soils in other localities. 
