June, ’24] jones and bradley: grasses and sugar cane borer 395 
sedge, Andropogon glomeratus and Andropogon virginicus, at Baton 
Rouge during the winter only one adult of Diatraea saccharalis issued, 
while 35 moths of Platytes densellus Zell, were obtained. Diatraea 
saccharalis and Diatraea evanescens Dyar were found infesting stems of 
Paspalum larrahagae at Elm Park, La., during the summer of 1923. 
As regards the occurrence of Diatraea saccharalis in rice it is of interest 
to note that from larvae collected from stems of volunteer rice at Baton 
Rouge on Janurary 3, 1923, 16 adults were obtained, whereas only one 
moth of the so-called “rice stalk-borer,” Chilo plejadellus Zinck., issued. 
From larvae of Diatraea saccharalis collected from grasses in Janu¬ 
ary, 1923, and placed in outdoor cages at Baton Rouge 42 moths issued. 
The first appeared on March 22 and the last on May 16. From larvae 
collected during October and November, 1922, and March, 1923, and 
placed with food in jars in a well ventilated insectary, 21 moths developed. 
The first issued on April 7 and the last on May 17. There appeared to be 
no day or succession of days when the moths issued in greatest numbers. 
From 3 pupae taken in the field on January 13, 1923, moths issued in the 
insectary on January 20, January 31, and February 13. 
Some of the grasses in which Diatraea saccharalis has been found to 
breed grow abundantly in areas where the borer has caused so much 
damage to corn in the past few years. It seems certain that, in the 
summer, after the corn becomes dry and loses its attractiveness for the 
borer, the moths fly to certain large-stemmed grasses and there deposit 
eggs and in the Spring moths that issue from grasses fly to the attractive 
young corn and lay eggs thereon. We should, therefore, expect a de¬ 
crease in infestation by the borer in corn if the grass areas in which the 
pest passes the winter were eliminated or the stages present in these 
grasses destroyed during the winter, although more definite information, 
especially on the flight of the moth, should be obtained before recommend¬ 
ing such practice as a method of control. 
In Bulletin No. 746 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture Messrs. 
Holloway and Loftin state, with respect to Diatraea saccharalis as a 
pest of sugar cane, that “the number of food plants, some of which grow 
wild about plantations, makes the species more difficult to control than 
if it were limited to corn and sugar cane, the larvae being able to grow to 
maturity on wild grasses and the adults migrating to the corn and cane 
fields.” Our observations indicate that the question of wild grasses, 
because of their usually being more abundant, is of more importance in 
connection with borer injury to corn outside of the sections where sugar 
cane is the principal crop than it is in these sections. 
