LIRRARY 
STATE PLANT BOARD 
E-551 
September 1941 
PROGRESS REPORT ON STUDIES OF HYPERA BRUNNEIPENNIS (BOH. )1/ 
IN THE YUMA VALLEY OF ARIZONA 
By William C. McDuffie, 
Division of Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations 
INTRODUCTION 
On April 11, 1939, an insect believed to be the alfalfa weevil 
Hypera postica (Gyll.) was discovered feeding on fenugreek (Trigonella 
foenum-g;raecum L.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L. ) near Yuma, Ariz,, by 
L. P. Wehrle and Robert Flack of the University of Arizona Agricultural 
Experiment Station. Specimens submitted to the Bureau of Entomology and 
Plant Quarantine were determined by L. L. Buchanan as Hypera brunneipennis 
(Boh.), an insect occurring in Egypt, Ethiopia, and India but new to the 
United States. Other than a brief summary of its habits and development in 
Egypt by Willcocks, 2/ and the indication that it is a minor pest there on 
berseem clover ( Tri f olium a lex andrir>n.m L.), nothing was recorded of this in- 
sect in entomological literature. 
A preliminary survey of the Yuma Valley by J. L. E. Lauderdale 
and other Arizona State workers immediately following the discovery re- 
vealed the infestation to be confined to the northeast portion of the tract. 
Further investigation during the spring by J , C. Hamlin and W. C. McDuffie, 
of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, and California State in- 
spectors revealed an extension of the infestation about 1 mile north of 
Yuma near Winterhaven, Imperial County, Calif. Other areas in California 
and Arizona were examined, but no further infestations were found at that 
time. 
1/ Order Coleoptera, family Curculionidae. 
2/ Willcocks, F. C. A Survey of the More Important Insects and 
Mites of Egypt. Sultanic ^gr. Soc, Tech- Sec, Bui. No. 1. 1922. (See 
pp. 43-44.) 
