August, ’23] 
HAWLEY: INSECT PESTS OF UTAH 
379 
There were so many of these eggs that shriveled that only a very small 
percentage hatched. The sugar-beet crown-borer ( Hulstea undulatella 
Clemens) was so abundant that 30 to 50 per cent of the plants were 
destroyed in some fields. This insect was described by Titus 3 in 1905 
and its presence in Utah has been known for at least eight years. The 
larva works on the crown of the beets and either cuts off the top or 
injures it so that it does not develop. When one tries to pull up a 
badly infested plant, it breaks off at the crown where the caterpillar in 
its silken cocoon may be found feeding. 
The beet leaf-hopper (. Eutettix tenellus Baker) has been more injurious 
during the past stimmer than for several years. It was especially bad 
in Sevier and Millard Counties, but was found locally in other beet¬ 
growing sections. This may be a forerunner of a still more severe in¬ 
festation next year. 
The alfalfa weevil was not an important pest during the summer of 
1922. The writer does not know of a case where it was considered 
sufficiently serious for control measures to be applied. The alfalfa 
caterpillar ( Eurymus eurytheme Boisd.) as a pest of alfalfa was of negligi¬ 
ble importance, but in Weber County it caused considerable loss by 
feeding on the skins of watermelons. Tho this did not greatly impair 
the edibility of the melon, it did seriously reduce its market value. The 
clover-seed chalcid ( Bruchophagus funebris Howard) has been very 
destructive to alfalfa that was being grown for seed, especially in the 
Uintah Basin. 
The outstanding features of the year have been a later-summer in¬ 
festation of corn ear-worm in both field corn and sweet corn that in 
some cases affected 100 per cent of the ears and the destruction of newly 
planted apple orchards in Utah County by a tree hopper ( Stictocephala 
festina Say), especially when the orchard was set out in or near an alfalfa 
field or patch of sweet clover. There has also been a marked increase 
in the number of grasshoppers in many parts of the state, and since in 
many places poisoning campaigns have not been undertaken on a general 
scale, considerable loss has been sustained. The so-called “black” or 
“Mormon” cricket ( Anabrus simplex Hald.) has also been on the in¬ 
crease during the past two years and is creating much interest in view 
of the immense losses that it caused to the early settlers of the state. 
It would not be surprising if the insect were still more abundant next- 
year. 
3 U. S. D. A. Bur. Ent. Bui. 54. (n. s.) 
