December, ’20] 
HINDS: MEXICO BEAN BEETLE 
487 
develop later and in newly infested territory especially have usually 
made a partial crop, but certainly less than a half crop. The new food- 
plant, cow peas, has been so heavily attacked in some fields as to reduce 
the yield of hay at least 30 per cent by weight, and the feeding value 
would be decreased even more than that. In some cases Calfornia 
black-eyed peas have been completely destroyed. Soy beans have 
also suffered heavily in some fields, but the infestation has not been as 
general on soy beans as on the other food plants. While Kudzu has 
not been attacked noticeably in the field, complete development of the 
insect has been obtained under confinement upon that plant. For¬ 
tunately no wild food plants have yet been found, and no field attack 
upon velvet beans, although slight feeding has occurred in confinement. 
The life history in the East appears to be quite different from that 
recorded in the West where the insect has occurred at high altitudes 
and under semi-arid conditions. Here the growing season is much 
longer than there and the breeding of the insect apparently begins much 
earlier in the season and continues much later. In Alabama breeding 
is certainly continuous until killing frosts occur. Freshly laid eggs 
have been found well into November, but development is, of course, 
retarded and reproduction less abundant than earlier in the season. 
While only two generations occur in the West, it seems certain that 
three or four occur in Alabama, and the capacity for damage will be cor¬ 
respondingly increased. 
The proportion of hibernating adults surviving the winter under 
Alabama conditions is under investigation with some 8,000 beetles in 
the various tests. The hardiness of the species is indicated by the 
fact that submergence under water for twenty-four hours did not kill 
any of them, although forty-eight hours was fatal to all, and also by 
the fact that exposure to HCN fumigation at standard strength and 
time for the treatment of nursery stock did not kill more than one- 
fourth of the adults tested. 
The Alabama State Board of Horticulture has established a quaran¬ 
tine covering the known infested area and also an adjoining safety 
zone approximately twenty-five miles in width, and prohibits the move¬ 
ment from this area of the following materials or articles when produced 
within the quarantined area: 
1. All possible food plants or other fresh materials most likely to 
aid in disseminating the pest. This list includes all fresh beans and 
cow peas of any kind and soy beans, but not English peas, velvet beans, 
or thoroughly dried and cleaned beans or peas of any kind. 
2. From April 1 to November 30 each year, all forms of “greens,” 
or fresh edible plant leaves, such as those of mustard, spinach, chard, 
turnips, beets, collards, cabbage, lettuce, etc.; green corn (“roasting 
6 
