MONTHLY LETTER OF THE BUREAU OF ENTO 
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL 






















i 
CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECT INVESTIGATIONS 
W. R. Walton, Entomologist in Charge 
| An international conference on insects of international importance to the 
Northwestern States and the Prairie Provinces of Canada was held at Winnipeg, 
Manitoba, on April 18 and 19. The Bureau of Entomology was represented by W. R. 
Walton and Stewart Lockwood. The other American entomologists present were Prof. 
BR. L. Webster, Prof. A. G. Ruggles, and Prof. H. C. Severin. The Canadian ento- 
-mological staff was represented by Arthur Gibson, R. C. Treherne, E. H. Strick- 
pland, H. L. Seamans, Norman Criddle, K.M. King, A. V. Mitchener, and H. P. 
Tullis. The meeting was addressed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Davis, of 
Manitoba, and also by the Acting President of the Agricultural College. The 
principal subjects discussed were grasshoppers, the western wheat-stem sawfly, 
® the pale western cutworm, and the occurrence of the Hessian fly in Canada. Plans 
f were perfected for the conduct of experimental work in the control of these in- 
sects, to be carried on in such a manner as to render the results comparable in 
all the districts involved. A base map of the international territory involved 
has been prepared for the purpose of plotting the occurrence of the principal 
insect pests of common importance to Canada and the United States. 
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i On the evening of the 19th W. R. Walton gave a lecture before the Manitoba 
| Natural History Society at the University of Manitoba on the subject of "Some 
‘Phases of Insect Parasitism," a purely popular treatment of the subject which 
P) will subsequently be published in the Canadian Field Naturalist. 
ie 
i The conference determined to meet at Bozeman, Mont., during April, 1924. 
| The officers elected for the ensuing year were Norman Criddle, chairman, and 
mR. A. Cooley, secretary. 
: H. P. Wood, who has been engaged in the corn-borer investigations during 
| the past two years, resigned April 30 to enter other employment. 
§ Prof. George A. Dean, of the Kansas Agricultural college, Manhattan, 
visited this office April 24. Professor Dean was in Washington to attend 
the meeting of the National Research Council. 
i During the past year the work of rearing and liberating an important par- 
| asite of the corn borer, Habrobracon brevicornis Wesmael, has been very suc- 
cessful, and this parasite has been liberated in numbers exceeding 1,000,000 
individuals in the densely infested area in New England. In view of the success 
achieved in rearing this parasite, it was believed that it might be worth while 

| Number 108 April, 1923 


