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FRUIT INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
A. L. Quaintance, Entomologist in Charge 
A. J. Flebut, formerly with the Bureau, and now with the General Chen- 
ical Co., visited the Yakima, Wash., laboratory the last of May. 
E. J. Newcomer, in charge of the Bureau's laboratory at Yakima, Wash., 
writes as follows: "Adults of the codling moth parasite Ascogaster carpo- 
capsae Vier. have again been secured from band material collected in the fall 
of 1923, indicating that this parasite has become established in the Yakima 
Valley. Of nearly 2,000 worms collected, only 5 produced parasites. No para- 
Site introductions have been made since 1921." 
M. A. Yothers, of the Yakima, Wash., laboratory, was in the Puget Sound 
region June 10 to 13, making a survey of the infestation of the bulb flies, 
Mevoden equestris F., and Bumerus strigatus Fallen. 
Fred E. Brooks, in charge of the Bureau's laboratory at French Creek, 
W. Va., writes.as follows: “Serious injury to young shagbark hickory and pecan 
trees by Agrilus arcuatus Say has been observed recently in several localities. 
The larva spends two years in the wood and twice during its life severs the 
branch or trunk in which it is working. Wood from half an inch to slightly 
more than an inch in diameter is entirely severed, except the bark, and the 
part above dies. In one block of young hickory trees in a nursery in Virginia 
the writer estimated that a hundred dollar's worth of trees had been ruined." 
"Injury very similar in nature and extent to that described above is 
being done by larvae of Pseudibidion unicolor. This species attacks small hick- 
ory and pecan trees and also severs branches of larger trees. In a pecan grove 
at Petersburg, Va., many fruiting branches were breaking during the month of. 
May as a result of cuts made by the larvae of this species." 
O. I. Snapp in charge of the Bureau's laboratory at Fort Valley, Ga., 
writes as follows: "Low temperatures last winter evidently killed many adult 
curculios in hibernation, Results of hibernation tests conducted at the lab- 
oratory show that 88.5 per cent of the beetles which had hibernated under oak 
leaves were killed during the winter, and 48.6 per cent of those which hiber- 
nated in Bermuda grass were killed. Bermuda grass has proven to be the best 
hibernating quarters for the curculio in this latitude, and during a normal 
“Winter the mortality of curculios hibernating in Bermuda grass will only be 
around 30 per cent. Curculios placed in hibernation cages with no hibernating 
quarters all die during the winter, showing that the insect will not go under 
the soil to hibernate. 
"On account of the late spring this year the curculio did not appear from 
hibernation until several weeks later than normal. April and May were unusually 
cool causing the insect to remain in the pupal stage much longer than usual. 
These conditions are responsible for the late appearance of first generation 
adults from the soil. ‘There has been very little mating of first generation 
adults, and: to date no second generation eggs have been deposited. It is doubt- 
ful if there will be much of a second generation of the plum curculio in Georgia 
this year. During a normal season second-generation eggs are deposited in nun- 
bers during June, and full-grown second generation larvae are taken by July l. 
