‘he 
MONTHLY LETTER OF THE BUREAU OF ENTOMOLO 
; UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTU 




YLIBRARY 
E RECEIVED 
& MAY 2~ 1933 4 
U. 8. Beparument of Azriculta 


Number 226 Activities for January 
(Not for Publication) 


CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS 
New southern limit for Hessian fly parasite.--Chas. C. Hill, of the 
Hessian fly laboratory, Carlisle, Pa., reports that "A female of Pleuro- 
tropis epigonus Walk. was reared in 1932 froma Hessian fly puparium col- 
lected at Wytheville, Va., a new and interesting record of the dispersion 
of this chalcidoid. P. epigonus was introduced from England under the 
Beeaaeation of C. V. Riley and F,-M. Webster in 1891. In 1921 a careful 
review by J. 5S. Wade and P. R. Myers of all distributional records of 
this parasite gave only one record of its occurrence in Virginia-~—Shenan-— 
doah County * * * the most southern distribution it was then known to 
have. Since then one male has been reared from Mt. Ross, in Westmoreland 
County, and one female from Wytheville, over 100 miles farther south." 
Parasite of sugarcane mealybug survives freezing temperatures.— 
H. A. Jaynes, Houma, La., reports that "Breeding of Pseudococcobius 
terryi (Full.)," recently introduced from Hawaii, "was continued in 
the laboratory. A vial containing mealybugs collected from Southdown 
plantation on December 20, 4 days after the freeze when the tempera— 
ture dropped to 24.5°F., produced 8 parasites on January el. * * * 
this freeze did not kill the parasite in the field." 
Relative effectiveness of grasshopper baits.--In a series of cage 
tests that are being conducted on the effectiveness of different pois- 
oned—bran baits on young hoppers, R. L. Shotwell and F. A. Morton, 
Bozeman, Mont., have found that "When sodium arsenite was used as the 
poison ingredient there was no significant difference between cane molas— 
ses, beet molasses, or amyl acetate used by themselves. All three were 
much better (22 percent to 34 percent mortality) than just the bran, 
sodium arsenite, and water. Amyl acetate in combination with cane molas— 
ses added very little (2.4 percent mortality) to the attractiveness of 
the bait. However, it increased the effectiveness of the beet molasses by 
about 8 per cent mortality. In some of the baits sodium fluosilicate 
was used as the toxicant at the rate of 2 1/2 pounds and 5 pounds per 
100 pounds of bran (dry weight). Here the 2 1/2 pounds alone was bet- 
ter (14 percent) than sodium arsenite alone. The 5-pound bait of so- 
