~27-) 
Emergence of the wheat straw vorm.--Mr. Cartwright also reports 
that on February & from 50 to 75 percent of the adults of Harmolita 
grandis Riley had emerged at Antelope, Calif., as compared with less 
than 6 percent on the same date in 1933. The weathér throughout 
February has been favorable for the migration and oviposition of ad- 
ults. | 
Favorable weather reflected in ranid growth of alfalfa and in 
normal insect populations.-~According to ©. ©. Wilson, the general 
activity of injurious insects in alfalfa fields has been above normal 
during February at Sacramento. The mild winter has assured normal 
populations of Hypera punctata Fab., Diabrotica soror Lec., Lygus 
pratensis L., Hurymus eurytheme Bdv., Laphygma exigua Ebn., Agallia. 
spp., and Tllinoia pisi Kalt. The Eurynus and Laphyena larvae were 
in the third instar, Hypera larvae were in the first and second ine 
stars and were doing some damage. Only the pea aphid was more abun- 
dant than normal. The alfalfa is heavy and growing rapidly. 
Conclusion of exneriment to determine if Platygaster herrickii 
is parthenofenetic:--The experiment reported last month by W. T. 
Emery, Wichita, Kans., on development from eggs of ummated females 
of this species has been concluded with the emergence of a total of 
32 males and no females. - Further corroborative experiments of this 
nature are in progress. 

February favorable to chinch bug.~-February was mild and compar- 
atively dry, the mean temperature for the month in the vicinity of 
Wichita being 36.89 F.; the total precipitation, 0.84 inch, accunu- 
lated-in 8 snow flurries, the largest amount at any time being 0.40 
inch on the 18th. Mr. Emery reports that he found 1 square foot of 
Andropogon in Sedgwick County to contain 473 chinch bugs, while amother 
square foot produced 517 bugs. The sex ratio was 464 males to 561 
females. 
Mild winter at Salt Lake City, Utoh, portends alfalfa weevil 
injury.--The outstanding peculiarity of the alfalfa weevil situation 
at the present time, as reported by G. I. Reeves, is that there has 
not been a single week in the course of the past winter when the 
thermograph records did not at some time reach 50° F., which is the 
tentatively established threshold for alfalfa weevil activity. Sini-~ 
lar temperatures have prevailed practically all throughout the alfalfa 
weevil territory. This means that where the alfalfa weevil popula- 
tions are large there is at present a prospect of serious alfalfa 
weevil damage, owing to the absence of the usual amount of winter kill- 
ing. 
