Urbana, something of the life history.
There are two broods, one appearing in June and one in July. The adult
is a small sucking bug about an eighth to a quarter inch long. The
species at that time was uncertain but now has been determined by
specialists in that group as _Cercoptera achatina_ Germ. This insect, I
reported, is not the same as the one occurring on meadow and other
field crops, not only the species but the genus being different. The
distribution was found to be in every area where pecans are grown. As to
its importance I pointed out that in Illinois it had become very serious
in the past three or four years, apparently causing a marked reduction
in crop. Control measures were directed against the nymphal stage, which
is protected by the spittle which the insect emits continuously while
feeding. Three insecticides were tested at Anna, Illinois, Lindane,
parathion, and tetra ethyl pyro phosphate, known as TEPP. Lindane proved
to be approximately 95% efficient, parathion roughly 60% and TEPP about
10%.

In 1952 the work was resumed in the orchard of Conrad Casper near Anna,
Illinois and was begun at the Richard Best place at Eldred, 175 miles
northwest.

In 1952 five phases of the work with pecan spittle bug were undertaken
as follows:

1. A study of the importance of the pecan spittle bug.
2. The hibernation of the insect.
3. Life history and occurrence of the various stages and broods of
the insect in relation to nut development of the pecan.
4. Control measures.
5. Varietal susceptibility to the insect.

1. Importance of the insect

_Hibernation Studies_

To learn to what extent if any the insect reduces the crop of pecans,
terminal shoots from trees sprayed the previous season with three
different materials were compared with the unsprayed check. These are
shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Pecan spittle bug effect of 1951 sprays on terminal shoots in
spring of 1952

===================================================
Dead shoots
Treatment per hundred

Check 87
TEPP 62
Parathion 17
Lindane 4
===================================================

Since these terminals shoots later develop most of the nuts it would
appear that the pecan spittle bug is respo