JAPANESE BEETLE INVESTIGATIONS 
. 
Loren B. Smith, Senior Entomologist, in Charge 
The season for the adult Japanese beetle is rapidly drawing to a 
close The unusual cool weather of August and the exceptional amount of 
Parneets auring the latter part of the month materiaily reduced the nua-— 
ber of beetles. As a result, many temporary employees have been relieved 
of their duties in connection with this laboratory. 
ny 
R. S. Lehman and F. Ching Woo have terminated their summer work 
on the parasites of the beetle. Mr. Lehman has taken a position at the 
Color rado Agricultural College, and Mr. Woo has returned to his home in 
Peyeechow, China. 
C. H. ificDonnell, who has been affiliated with the Physiological 
Section for the last four summers, has left here to spend a week in 
Washington with his father, C. C. McDonnell, of the Bureau of Chemistry 
and Soils, On September 9 he will return to Middletown, Conn., to re- 
sumé his studies at Wesleyan University. Mr. McDonnell is the 1927 foot- 
ball manager for Yesleyan. 
Leaving on August 23, B. R. Van Leeuwen, with 0. G. Anderson, of 
‘he Pomology Department of Purdue University, motored to Michigan. Fro- 
fessor Anderson has been associated with the Beetle Insecticide Section 
during the last tyo months, 
Nathan Tischler, temporary assistant in the Section of Ecology, 
has resigned to engage i 
Walter E. Fleming recently visited the plant of the Baker Castor 
Oil Co,, at Jersey City, N, J., and that of the spencer Kellogg Co., at 
Edgewater, N. J., to obtain different erades of oil to use in a new car— 
bon disulphide solution which seems promising as a soil insecticide. 
Scouting in the present season has shown that the area in New 
Jersey and Pennsylvania in which the Japanese beetle is si numer- 
ous to inflict severe damage on economic plants has been somewhat extended. 
In central New Jersey the area in which the beetle is sontiinieaee dis- 
tributed now extends entirely across the State to the ocean, in the region 
lying north of Mullica River and between that strean and Tom's River. 
the observations made this season bear out the previously noted 
fact that the extension of range of the bectle proceeds most ravidly to- 
ards the east, and that it is relatively slow in other directions, espe- 
Clally towards the west, 
The earliest record for this year of third-instar grubs of the new 
generation was obtained on August 22. ‘the earliest date of this event in pre- 
vious years was August 16, 1926, a fact indicating that the prevailing cool 
Swuaner has resulted in a slight retardation of the grovth of the larvae. 
