Po. 
Population of western spotted cucumber beetle reduced. -—-Accord— 
ing to T. R. Chamberlin, "In April 1951, flood waters of Gales Creek, 
near Forest Grove, deposited millions of adults of Diabrotica soror 
Lec. with trash along fence rows. Late in December 1933 a similar 
flood enabled us to obtain comparable dota in regard to the abundance 
of these beetles in the same area. The fence rows previously examined 
showed the same conditions resulting from the flood, except that only 
a few beetles were found in the trash, This showed that where thous- 
ands of beetles hei emerged from hibernation in this @rea in 1931 
Say il, commaraoly speaking, had hibernated in the same area in 1935-900 
The great reduction in the population of this species appears to have 
been an after effect of the freeze of December 1932 without snow cover— 
ing. 
Hot ee destructive to insects.--Geo. W. Barber, Savannah, Ga., 
reports: "In the ‘latitude of eastern Georgia from May to September, 
inclusive, soil unshaded by nlants often becones quite hot during the 
warmest hours cf the ae The shade temperatures nearly every day 
then resched between 90° and 100° F., and the maxinum was reached be- 
tween noon and JP. m. Readings from a chemical thermometer placed 
on the soil surface in unshaded spots ranged from 120° to 140° F 
during the warmest period of the day, and a maximum of 150° Be Was 
once observed. The higher temperatures are too great for lepidopter-— 
ous larvae to endure. Mr. Barber repeatedly observed that larvae of 
Heliothis obsoleta Fab. and Laphysma frugiperda, S. and A. died when 
venturing on unshaded soil in cornfields during the hot hours of the 
months mentioned. But the most remarkable instance of the destruc- 
tion of large numbers of an insect by contact with hot soil was ob- 
served in ipeatbeaia ss County, Ga., the insect being the velvetbean 
caterpillar (Anticarsia gemmatilis Hbn}) ,in September 1933. Ina 
3C-acre field of soybeans great numbers of these larvae were feeding 
from September 8 to 21. Many more larvae were present than could 
mature on the food available; consequently, after all the leaves had 
been devoured, the larvae left the plants to seek other food. The 
soil, no longer shaded by the leaves, received the full force of the 
sun. It was observed that countless thousands of these larvae had 
perished on this hot soil, and over much of the area the dead bodies 
averaged several per square foot of surface. In another soybean field; 
of about 20 acres, which was wholly stripped of leaves during the 
last week of August, examination of pupae recovered from the soil shovw- 
ed that 27.6 percent had died, and as this insect pupates just below 
the surface of the soil, and as the leafless plants afforded no shade, 
the heated soil probably caused most of these pupae to perish. 
Preliminary results of sprays for control of southwestern corn 
borer.--The following report has been submitted by E. G. Davis, Tempe, 
Ariz.: Since 1929 several different kinds of dusts and sprays have 
been applied in cornfields at Tucson, Ariz., to ascertain their value 
against Diatraea grandiosella Dyar. The dusts were applied as larvi- 
