Choctaw County Research Articles

SHOT ON THE SPOT VACCINATION COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Abstract Due to the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affecting Black communities, The University of Alabama (UA) partnered with the Rural Alabama Prevention Center (RAPC), a community-based healthcare organization to improve the vaccination rate from 34% vaccinated Alabama Black Belt residents to 70% over a year. Health literacy training is provided to community health workers and students who, along with the team members, volunteer at pop-up Shot on the Spot vaccination sites to administer surveys collecting demographics and vaccine hesitancy data. Team members provide health literacy information and answer questions non-vaccinated individuals have. This vaccination intervention has led to drastic rate increases, such as, Choctaw County having a 36.6% increase since the beginning of the project in August (30.7% to 67.30%). However, some counties have low vaccination rate changes, such as, Crenshaw County with a rate change of 15.4% (19.5% to 34.90%). Notably, the Alabama Black Belt currently stands at a higher vaccination rate compared to Tuscaloosa County (UA’s location), only having a rate of 44.3%. Within one year, there have been a total of 44 administered first and second vaccine doses and 435 booster doses, resulting in 50.24% vaccinated Black Belt residents. As the virus evolved into different variants, team members were able to observe an increase in administered booster doses in congruence with the rise of a new coronavirus variant. The partnership formed between RAPC and UA scientists and students is an important step in improving vaccination rates and building community research on minority and diverse populations.

The vascular flora of Choctaw County, Mississippi, U.S.A.

The state of Mississippi is one of the least botanically explored areas in the eastern United States. A floristic survey of Choctaw County, Mississippi, was conducted from November 2009 through November 2017 in order to document the vascular flora and describe its plant communities. The county is located in the central portion of the state within the North Central Plateau physiographic region, an area dominated by dissected uplands with acidic to circumneutral sandy-clay soils. Three major river basins occur in the county, including the Big Black River, Noxubee River, and Pearl River. A total of 950 vascular plant species (958 taxa including varieties, subspecies, and recognized hybrids) was recorded. Three-hundred thirteen of these taxa were new county records. Twenty-eight species of special concern as designated by the Mississippi Natural Heritage Program were documented. Approximately 15 percent of the flora is considered non-native to the United States. Eight primary plant communities are also described.

First Record of Chorioactis geaster from Oklahoma

Chorioactis geaster (Peck) Kupfer, the devil’s cigar fungus, is reported from Oklahoma for the first time. A collection was made in Choctaw County in southeast Oklahoma in January 2017. Chorioactis geaster is a fleshy fungus that belongs to the Ascomycota and is an example of what are commonly referred to as cup fungi. The young ascomata are closed, swollen-elongate, brown and finely hairy. During expansion, the ascomata split into 3–6 rays that are reminiscent of earth star fungi. The hymenophore color is pale yellow to tan. The ascospores are large, measuring 60–70 x 12– 13 μm , and are curved-fusoid in shape. All previous records from the United States have been reported from Texas, and the fungus is also known from Japan. The holotype was collected in Austin, Texas in 1891 and described by Charles H. Peck in the genus Urnula .

Little Dixie’s Circus Cemetery

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Often referred to as Little Dixie, the southeastern corner of Oklahoma is home to more than just customs stemming from Native American influences in the 1800s and southerners who later migrated to the area in the 1900s. Outside of similarities in agriculture, architecture, demographics, and politics resembling the American South, in one town you can add another unique feature to the list: the circus. Hugo, Oklahoma, the county seat of Choctaw County, has served as the winter home for traditional tent shows since the 1940s. The Miller family's Al G. Kelly and Miller Brothers was the first to call Hugo, Oklahoma, home, thanks to the support of local businessman and circus fan Vernon Pratt. While Pratt offered the Millers free water for their animals, it proved to be a good move for circus owner Obert Miller and his two sons, Kelly and D. R., as the family was looking for a warmer climate over the winter months. Soon after the Millers established Hugo as their winter quarters, other shows followed. In addition to the town's temperate climate, Hugo also has easy access to state highways, which run north and south as well as east and west, creating more options when planning circus routes. The Hugo-based tent shows often followed the agricultural harvest and brought entertainment to rural communities throughout the South. Through the years, approximately twenty circuses established winter quarters in Hugo, with notable owners such as Herb Walters, the Miller family, and Jack Moore all setting up shop in the Little Dixie town known as Circus City, U.S.A. As of 2014, only three traditional tent circuses continue to call Hugo home: Carson and Barnes, Kelly Miller, and Culpepper & Merriweather. Despite the boom and later decline of circuses in the area, Hugo continues to hold strong to its circus heritage. One distinct reminder of this heritage can be found while exploring the tombstones at the Mount Olivet Cemetery. In the 1960s, a section of the cemetery was established as Showmen's Rest, serving as the final resting place for circus entertainers, employees, and show owners from not only Oklahoma but all parts of the country. Wandering through row after row of unique markers and engravings sparked an interest in the people laid to rest there. Unanswered questions led to the development of an oral history project focused on preserving the culture of those with circus ties in the Little Dixie town of Hugo, Oklahoma. NOTE Photos and interview excerpts were recorded as part of The Big Top Show Goes On: An Oral History of Occupations Inside and Outside the Canvas Tent. Made possible by a 2011 Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, oral history transcripts, recordings, and images from this project are available at the Oklahoma State University Library and the Library of Congress American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We had a gentleman that worked for us, and he was just a drifter that came on as a teenager and ended up spending his whole life with us. His name was John Carroll, and he worked with the animals. And especially back in the old days, some of the guys that would come along, they were drifters and didn't really have family connections, and so the circus kind of ended up being their family and their home, and they spent their lives here. So John Carroll was one of those characters. He had lost his eye in an accident, and he received like an insurance settlement. I think it was seventeen thousand dollars or something, and he didn't have a family. About five or six years later, he passed away. And unbeknownst to my father, he had left this insurance settlement to my father. My dad didn't know what to do with it, and about that same time my uncle passed away, and that was in 1960. So he got the idea of making this place where circus people would be buried, because a lot of times circus people, like I say, don't have roots, and they would be buried in Timbuktu. …

First Report of Soybean vein necrosis virus in Soybean Fields of Oklahoma.

Soybean vein necrosis virus (SVNV) causes a new emerging disease of soybean that has been recorded in more than 10 states (1,2,3,4) of the United States, but so far no information is available about its presence in soybean crops of Oklahoma. Surveys of commercial soybean fields were conducted for soybean viruses during summer of 2012. A total of 327 samples were randomly collected from soybean fields in 11 counties. Symptoms typical of SVNV infections including leaf chlorosis and leaf-vein necrosis were observed on some soybean plants in the field (4). All soybean leaf samples were tested against SVNV polyclonal antisera obtained from AC Diagnostics, Inc. (Fayetteville, AR) by dot-immunobinding assay (DIBA) (1). Fifty-three samples reacted positively with SVNV antisera. Total RNA was extracted from three DIBA-positive samples collected from soybean plants in Choctaw County and tested by reverse transcription (RT)-PCR using SVNV-specific primers (forward primer 5'-ATGTTCTCTCTATAATAGCCA and reverse primer 5'-ACCCATAACAATTGATCAAGA-3') that were designed from the available sequence in the GenBank (Accession No. GU722317.1) to amplify a fragment from RNA1. A band of the expected size of 344 bp was observed on a 1% agarose gel in all three samples. The PCR products were purified using QIAquick PCR Purification Kit (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA), cloned (pGEM-T Easy Vector, Promega, Madison, WI) and sequenced in both directions. The consensus sequence of the 344-bp fragment was 99% identical with the corresponding region of RNA 1 of SVNV isolate 'Milan_TN' (Accession No. GU722317.1). These results confirmed the presence of SVNV in soybean fields, which are mostly located in Criage, Choctaw, Hughes, LeFlore, Mayes, Muskogee, McCurtain, Okmulgee, Ottawa, Rogers, and Sequoyah counties of Oklahoma. None of the samples collected from north central or western parts of the state were positive against SVNV. To our knowledge, this is the first report of SVNV in soybean crops in Oklahoma. Soybean is one of the major oil seed crops cultivated on approximately 200,000 hectares annually in Oklahoma and the presence of SVNV could pose a potential threat to the production of soybean in the future.

A New Species of Caryospora (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae) from the Flathead Snake, Tantilla gracilis (Ophidia: Colubridae), In Southeastern Oklahoma

A single flathead snake, Tantilla gracilis , collected in early October 2010 from Choctaw County, Oklahoma, was found to harbor an undescribed species of Caryospora . Oocysts of Caryospora choctawensis n. sp. were spherical to subspherical, 15.8 × 15.0 (14-18 × 14-16) µm, with a thick, bilayered wall and a shape index (length∶width) of 1.1. A micropyle and an oocyst residuum were absent, but prominent Stieda and bubble-like sub-Stieda bodies were present as well as a bilobed polar granule near the oocyst wall. Sporocysts were ovoidal, 10.8 × 9.0 (10-12 × 8-9) µm, with a shape index of 1.2. The sporocyst residuum was spherical and composed of a cluster of granules often membrane-bound. This is the second time a caryosporan species has been reported from T. gracilis but the first coccidian ever described from a reptilian host in Oklahoma. Additional T. gracilis from Arkansas (n = 6), Oklahoma (n = 1), and Texas (n = 7) were examined, and a single specimen from Newton County, Arkansas harbored Caryospora gracilis Upton, McAllister, Trauth, and Bibb, 1992 , previously reported from T. gracilis collected in Arkansas and Texas.

Molasses-Colored Glasses: WPA and Sundry Sources on Molasses and Southern Foodways

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] has been one of the three Ms of the diet of southern common folks, along with meat (salt pork) and meal (corn meal). It has served as a baking ingredient, condiment, and cold remedy, and it was central to special-occasion meals in the South. We can draw on a range of sources, including travelers' accounts, autobiography, community studies, WpA narratives, and interviews conducted for the Origins of Soul Food Oral History Project to examine its importance and its changing role in southern foodways. (1) is made from sugar cane and the similar sorghum syrup comes from sweet sorghum grass. Both crops were probably introduced to the New World during the Atlantic slave trade. Travel accounts tell us that West Africans were familiar with both because women merchants made and sold sweets from these plants. Describing a coastal market in Guinea in 1602, the Dutch traveler Pieter de Marees writes: Very early in the morning, at day-break, the Peasants come to the Market, carrying on their heads two or three bundles of Sugar-cane, like Faggots. They untie the bundles of Sugar-cane and spread them out on the Market-place. Then the Inhabitants of the place come and buy Sugar-cane from the Peasants there, one buying two Canes, another three, according to their needs. Thus these Peasants quickly dispose of their Sugar-cane, for people are accustomed to eat a great deal of it. (2) In the sixteenth century the Portuguese established sugar plantations in Brazil, and the Spanish, French, Dutch, and English soon followed suit in the Caribbean and then in the South. English planters in the Caribbean sold molasses along with sugar and rum to Africans, Indians, and the English working class. White colonists in Virginia and the Carolinas also traded for Caribbean molasses, using it in a variety of ways. An anonymous observer wrote, around 1730, Molasses is generally throughout all the Northern Colonies, and at our Fisheries, in brewing their Beer, and the poorer Sort, who are very numerous, eat it with their Bread, and make Puddings of it, Ec [sic]. One common use was as a sweetener in hasty pudding--oatmeal porridge or cornmeal mush served with butter, milk, and molasses. In many places molasses was also as feed for both livestock and enslaved Africans. (3) After the Louisiana Purchase, sugar cultivation for national and international markets became gradually limited to Florida and Louisiana, but sugar cane was still grown for local consumption in states like Virginia and Alabama. Sweet sorghum, grown primarily in the Midwest in the mid-nineteenth century, had also become a predominantly southern crop by the 1890s. A U.S. Department of Agriculture study done in 1895 and 1896 found that African American farmers in Tuskegee County, Alabama, for example, dedicated some of their fields to raising sugar cane and sweet sorghum, which they used to make molasses for home consumption, although only a part of the molasses by the farmer is made on the farms, the rest is bought at the stores with other commodities. (4) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Others obtained molasses through various systems of barter. Joyce White remembers that in her Choctaw County, Alabama, hometown African American men would go to the local white-owned sugar mill in November to help with the long, hard, hot and tedious task of making molasses: The work began at daybreak and lasted until nightfall. The stalks of cane were fed through a hand operated press to extract the sugar-sweet juice, which was poured into large vats. A fire was set and the juice was boiled until the sugar caramelized and turned into molasses. Daddy would arrive home dead tired. In those days black families bartered services for goods and produce, and his earnings were several gallon cans of molasses, which Mama cooked with throughout the winter. …

Survey of Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the Tombigbee National Forest in Mississippi

A survey of Formicidae was conducted in the Tombigbee National Forest (Ackerman Unit) in Winston and Choctaw Counties, Mississippi. Collections were made with pitfall traps from 15 March 1999 to 6 March 2000 and with other collecting methods on various dates from the spring of 2002 through the fall of 2004. A total of 27 genera and 72 species representing 7 subfamilies are reported from the Tombigbee National Forest. Seven new state records are given, as well as records of several rare and uncommon species. Habitat and microhabitat information are given for each species. The Tombigbee National Forest (Ackerman Unit) covers an area of 15,972 hectares and lies in the adjacent counties of Choctaw, Winston, and Oktibbeha in east-central Mississippi. The majority of the Tombigbee National Forest is found in the North Central Plateau Physiographic Region of the state with only a few hectares found in an edge of the Flatwoods Region. The topography varies from the nearly flat floodplains of the Noxubee River and its tributaries to very dissected hills and steep ravines, with elevations ranging 91-183 m. Whereas slopes are well drained, low lying areas may be inundated seasonally. Springs and seeps occur sporadically throughout this region. The soils are typically acid to neutral and are mostly clays, sandy clays, or occasionally gravelly clays. The landscape of the Tombigbee National Forest is dominated by a mixture of deciduous trees and pines with a few cleared areas, power-line cuts, and roads. Upland areas include a variety of oaks (Fagaceae: Quercus spp.) and hickories (Juglandaceae: Carya spp.) mixed with loblolly pine (Pinaceae: Pinus taeda L.), and some shortleaf pine (P. echinata Miller). The trees typically seen on ravine slopes and their bases and near smaller streams are a variety of oaks, hickories, cucumber magnolia (Magnoliaceae: Magnolia acuminata L.), tulip poplar (Magnoliaceae: Liriodendron tulipifera L.), beech (Fagaceae: Fagus grandifolia Ehrhart), and sweetgum (Hamamelidaceae: Liquidambar styraciflua L.) (McDaniel, 1992). The Mississippi Entomological Museum (MEM) conducted a survey of ants in the Tombigbee National Forest (Ackerman Unit) from March 1999 through the fall of 2004 to document species present in the National Forest and to give habitat and nesting information about species found there. This survey adds to earlier formicid surveys done in Mississippi by Marion Smith (1924a, b, c, 1927, 1928a, b, 1931, 1932). Since Smith's time, there have been many additions to the state's formicid fauna due to changes in taxonomy, the availability of newer collecting techniques, and the introduction of exotic species.

English

The Red Hills Lignite Mine opened in 1998 with initial production beginning in 2001 and produces 3.3 million tonnes per year. It is located on the eastern edge of the Wilcox geological formation. Soils within the 2350 ha mine area in Choctaw County, MS are generally on eroded hills with an average topsoil depth of 18 cm interspersed with deep, poorly drained alluvial soil along creek bottoms that comprise 29.3% of the permitted mine area. Climate is subtropical with hot summers, mild winters and an annual rainfall of 1200 to 2200 mm/year. The current topsoil substitute permitted is a minimum of 1.2 m of red oxidized overburden that is 10 to 80% sand and 10 to 40% clay with an acid-base accounting level greater than –5 tonnes CaCO3/tonne soil. Forty hectares have been reclaimed per year since 2000. A one-time application of fertilizer as 17-1717 at 560 to 840 kg/ha is applied to stimulate grass growth. The revegetation sequence consists of planting browntop millet (Urochloa ramosa, Syn. Panicum ramosum) along with bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) to provide soil stabilization followed by planting loblolly pines (Pinus taeda). Alternately, wheat (Triticum aestivum) is planted to stabilize new soil reclaimed during the cool season. Soil fertility of the red oxidized topsoil substitute is superior to the thin, eroded topsoil in terms of higher extractable P and Ca levels. Establishment of bermudagrass and browntop millet is excellent with ground cover exceeding 80 to 90% within 1-2 months. Survival of loblolly pine is 70 to 90% after three years. Initial tree growth is 0.37 to 0.91 m per year. Species diversity is increasing after three to five years. Native grasses and forbs such as Andropogon spp., Eupatorium spp., and Solidago spp. are reinvading reclaimed areas from the seedbank present in the topsoil substitute or wind dispersal as bermudagrass declines. Additional

Vascular Flora of Hugo Lake Wildlife Management Area, Choctaw County, Oklahoma

This paper reports the results of an inventory of the vascular plants at the Hugo Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Oklahoma. A total of 573 specific and interspecific taxa of vascular plants in 359 genera and 113 families were collected. The most commonly collected were of the families Poaceae (75), Asteraceae (76), Fabaceae (40), and Cyperaceae (38). One hundred sixty-four species were annuals or biennials, and 409 were perennials. Ninety-seven species of woody plants were present. Fifty-one exotic species were collected representing 9% of the flora. Fourteen species tracked by the Oklahoma Natural Heritage Inventory were found. This study reports 256 species previously not documented in Choctaw County.

ABSTRACT: Determining Reservoir Quality by Combined Stratigraphic, Petrographic and Petrophysical Methods As Part of Optimized Recovery Programs: Womack Hill Smackover Field, Clarke and Choctaw Counties, Alabama

Objective of the Study The objective of this study is to describe depositional and diagenetic characteristics of the Oxfordian (Jurassic) Smackover Formation in the Womack Hill field, Alabama, as part of an integrated reservoir description program. In order to understand the distribution of reservoir units, this study utilized an integrated array of data from core lithological descriptions, borehole logs, core reports, thin section petrography, porosity and permeability measurements on core plugs, and mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) measurements. These data made it possible to establish reliable measures of reservoir quality by comparing pore geometry with pore type; then determining which pore types correspond with highest porosity-permeability paired values. Pore aperture (throat) median sizes measured by mercury capillary pressures were tested for correspondence with porosity, pore type, permeability, and saturation in order to establish quality rankings for the reservoir units.

Borrelia lonestari DNA in adult Amblyomma americanum ticks, Alabama.

Polymerase chain reaction analysis of 204 Amblyomma americanum and 28 A. maculatum ticks collected in August 1999 near the homes of patients with southern tick-associated rash illness and in control areas in Choctaw County, Alabama, showed Borrelia lonestari flagellin gene sequence from two adult A. americanum. The presence of B. lonestari in A. americanum ticks from Alabama suggests that this suspected pathogen may be widespread in the southeastern United States.

Preliminary assessment of a wreck in the Red River, Choctaw County, Oklahoma, USA

Preliminary assessment of a wreck in the Red River, Choctaw County, Oklahoma, USA

Preliminary assessment of a wreck in the Red River, Choctaw County, Oklahoma, USA

This paper reports the initial recording of an early riverboat wreck located in the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas. The wreck is probably the Caddo lost in 1842. The visible wreckage is described and the history of the Caddo is discussed. This is the earliest western rivers steamboat investigated by archaeologists to date.

Abstract: Classification of Porosity and Permeability Category with Regression Trees

ABSTRACT Permeability and porosity are two of the most important petrophysical parameters in reservoir characterization. In a carbonate reservoir, the exact porosity/permeability values are often too difficult to be obtained from well-log data. Nevertheless, knowledge of relative porosity/permeability category (high, moderate or low categories) is useful for formulating strategies for oil and gas field development and production. This paper presents a classification method capable of determining the porosity/permeability category by feet from well-log data. Regression trees, which incorporate regression method, tree structure, and expert knowledge to determine data category, are utilized. A regression tree can be constructed based on a a training well. This well contains the independent variables obtained from well logs and the dependent variables (in terms of desired categories) obtained from core data. The constructed tree is then used to explore the predictive structure of the given data and the interactions between various log signatures. Finally a classification method is used to derive the corresponding category of porosity/permeability categories. Data from seven wells in North Choctaw Ridge Smackover Formation, located in Choctaw County, AL are used in this study. From each well, seven well-log signatures were selected as independent variables for classification. They are well-log depth, gamma ray, density porosity, neutron porosity, lateral induction, medium induction and dual induction. The corresponding dependent variables are porosity and permeability form core analysis. The proposed classifier was trained on data from well 1944, and then tested on wells 1688, 1712, 1739, 1835, 1878 and 1946. To measure the prediction accuracy of the classifier, the output of these six test wells was compared with actual core porosity and core permeability. Table 1 lists the error percentage of the predicated porosity of reach of the seven wells. Table 2 lists the error percentage of the predicted permeability. From Tables 1 and 2, the proposed classifier yields a 86.7% accuracy for porosity and 82.8% accuracy for permeability. Figure 1 compares the predicated porosity with the core-measured porosity by feet for each of the seven wells. Table 1. Error rate for porosity prediction Table 2. Error rate for permeability prediction Using the same data, a backpropagation neural network with three layers (input, hidden, and output) was also applied. As a result, a 73.2% accuracy and 62.2% accuracy were obtained for porosity and permeability, respectively. The proposed classification method yields higher accuracy than the popular backpropagation neural network in the classification of porosity and permeability category. End_Page 20------------------------ Figure 1. End_Page 21------------------------ Figure 2. End_of_Record - Last_Page 22-------

Abstract: Area-Balanced Structural Model of a Fractured Chalk Reservoir: Toward Revitalizing Gilbertown Field, Choctaw County, Alabama

Abstract: Area-Balanced Structural Model of a Fractured Chalk Reservoir: Toward Revitalizing Gilbertown Field, Choctaw County, Alabama

Petrology, Stratigraphy, and Depositional History of the Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic Eagle Mills Formation, Choctaw County, Alabama: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT In southwestern Choctaw County, Alabama, the Eagle Mills Formation consists of alluvial-fan red beds deposited in a Mesozoic graben. The Exxon No. 1 Smith Lumber Co. well penetrated the upper 2,210 ft of the Eagle Mills, and it is divided into eight lithostratigraphic units designated A through H from bottom to top. Unit A consists of numerous upward-fining and -coarsening sequences of sandstones, conglomeratic sandstones, and conglomerates of variable thickness separated by red mudstones. They were deposited on the distal fan by ephemeral streams and sheetfloods and are composed of low-grade metamorphic rock fragments probably derived from the Talladega slate belt. Unit B consists of red mudstone with interbedded upward-fining and -coarsening sandstones and conglomerates with abundant calcite concretions and paleocaliche. Thin-section analyses of three sandstones of Unit B show that two are phyllarenites and one is a subphyllarenite. They vary from very fine to coarse-grained and are moderately sorted and submature, with angular to subangular framework grains. Quartz (subequal monocrystalline and polycrystalline) is the dominant framework grain with lesser amounts of schist and phyllite. In the two shallower sandstones, quartz content decreases as chert and dolomite marble rock fragments increase. Scanning electron microscope examination of one sandstone shows the presence of large well-developed pores lined with illite and authigenic quartz. Examination of drill cuttings from other Unit B sandstones, however, shows them to be poorly sorted, highly indurated, and apparently of low porosity. Unit B was deposited on the distal fan by sheetfloods and ephemeral streams. Faulting and igneous activity related to rifting occurred during the latter stage of deposition of Unit B. Units C through G are dominantly conglomerates; Units C, D, and F contain abundant igneous rock fragments. Unit C contains plutonic (syenite) and volcanic (rhyolite and dacite) rock fragments, and the igneous clasts of Units D and F are volcanic. Rare poorly defined graded beds occur in Unit D cores. Units C and D exhibit a general upward coarsening of sediments, indicating progradation of the fan. Unit E coarsens upward to a sedimentary (chert and limestone) and metamorphic (dolomite marble and lesser amounts of phyllite and schist) rock-fragment-bearing cobbly pebble conglomerate. Unit F is a mixed volcanic and sedimentary-rock-fragment-bearing conglomerate. Unit G is a massive sedimentary and metamorphic rock-fragment-bearing cobbly pebble conglomerate. Cores taken from the upper half of this unit show this portion to be a poorly sorted clast- to matrix-supported conglomerate. Although Unit G is in general massive, rare poorly defined graded beds and rare thin-bedded sandstones are also present. Units D through G were deposited in the mid-fan subenvironment. In Unit H, high log porosities and well-rounded sand grains in drill cuttings indicate the presence of eolian deposits. Log responses and the presence of anhydrite in cuttings show that the Eagle Mills is overlain by the Werner Formation. The provenance for Eagle Mills sediments was the southern Appalachian system, with sedimentary rock fragments being derived from folded Paleozoic rocks, whereas metamorphic rock fragments came primarily from metasedimentary rocks of the Talladega slate belt. Igneous rock fragments were derived from rocks emplaced in the upper-fan area as a result of igneous activity associated with rifting. End_Page 117------------------------ FIGURE 1. [Grey Scale] Unit G cobbly pebble conglomerate. Clasts are chert and dolomite marble. FIGURE 2. [Grey Scale] Upward-fining conglomerate channel deposit. Light-colored clasts are quartzite; dark elongate clasts are hematite-stained phyllite and schist. FIGURE 3. [Grey Scale] Unit D porphyritic rhyolite clast. White phenocryst is alkali feldspar altered to illite. Matrix is hematite-stained mud. FIGURE 4. [Grey Scale] Thin-section photomicrograph of oolitic sandstone clast. Most ooid nuclei are quartz coated with hematite. Clast is from Silurian Clinton Group. End_of_Record - Last_Page 118-------

Laboratory Rearing of Chelysomidea guttata (Hemiptera: Scutelleridae) with Descriptions of Immature Stages

Adults and third to fifth instars of Chelysomidea guttata (Herrich-Schaeffer) were collected from Croton capitatus Michaux and C. glandulosus L. in Choctaw County, Ala., and Covington County, Miss., in September 1982, and adults and second instars from C. capitatus in Covington, Simpson, and Rankin counties, Miss., in August 1983. The 1983 adults were maintained and instars were reared on cuttings of C. capitatus in the laboratory at 25.0 ± 1°C, a 12:12 (L:D) photoperiod, and ambient humidity. These animals were used to establish a laboratory culture for rearing data from which immatures were selected for descriptions.

Effectiveness of Sterile Boll Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Against a Low-Density Population in Commercially Grown Cotton in Northcentral Mississippi

Sterile boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, were released into six fields of commercially grown cotton (total of 28.1 ha) in Choctaw County, Miss. Three fields (total of 18.8 ha) that received no sterile weevils were used as controls. Weevils were sterilized by subjecting them to 10 krad of gamma irradiation, then immersing them in either an acetone or aqueous solution of 0.04% diflubenzuron. The weevils were suspended in an aqueous solution of 0.55% furcellaran, a gelling agent, and dispensed directly onto cotton plants by means of specially designed equipment. The population of native boll weevils present in the field during the course of this test, as estimated using three techniques, averaged 4.1 per 0.4 ha/wk. This very low population of native weevils encountered during the release period allowed a test of the hypothesis that a given number of sterile weevils will produce increasingly greater reductions in egg hatch of native populations as those populations become smaller. Egg hatch in fields where the sterile weevils were released averaged 15.2% as opposed to 94.4% in control fields, indicating that sterile weevils could effect significant reductions in egg hatch of a low-level native population in commercially grown cotton. Comparing these results with those of a previous test indicated that, although egg hatch was lower in the smaller native population, the efficiency of the sterile weevils appeared to be lower with the smaller population.

Petrology and Hydrocarbon Reservoir Potential of Subsurface Pottsville (Pennsylvanian) Sandstones, Black Warrior Basin, Mississippi: ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT The Black Warrior Basin of Mississippi and Alabama is a Paleozoic foreland basin developed between the North American craton and the Appalachian and Ouachita orogenic belts. The basin fill consists of a Middle Mississippian to Lower Pennsylvanian clastic wedge transitional in character between Appalachian molasse and Ouachita flysch. Pottsville (Pennsylvanian) sandstones, shales, coals, and thin conglomerates make up the greater portion of the wedge, thickening to 11,000 feet in NE Mississippi. Although the outcropping and near-surface Pottsville is economically important as a source of coal in Alabama, only minor amounts of gas have been derived from the subsurface Pottsville of Mississippi (Clay and Monroe Counties). Production from the Black Warrior Basin, mostly gas, is contributed chiefly by Chesterian (Mississippian) sands and limestones from the shallower part of the basin, especially Monroe County. Cores of Pottsville sandstones from four wells in the deeper part of the Black Warrior Basin (Calhoun and Choctaw Counties) have been examined to determine their petrography, diagenetic history, and reservoir quality. This part of the basin is relatively unexplored, and the primary objective of the study was to determine if suitable hydrocarbon reservoirs are present. Based on Folk's classification, the sandstones studied are mostly very fine- to fine-grained sublitharenites and litharenites, consisting of about 65%-75% monocrystalline quartz with lesser amounts (6%-8%) of polycrystalline quartz, metamorphic rock fragments (10%-18%), feldspar (2-6%), miscellaneous grains (2-4%), and matrix (2%). The framework grains are interpreted as having an Ouachita provenance, and probably represent recycled orogenic-belt detritus. The Pottsville sandstones examined apparently were deposited in a nearshore marine delta fringe environment. Evidence for this includes glauconite, carbonates, and marine invertebrate fossils, along with plant debris. The original depositional texture has been markedly altered, particularly by over-compaction and suturing of quartz grains. Porosity has also been reduced by ductile grain deformation which has contributed to a pseudomatrix. Partial to complete pore filling in places has been accomplished by silica, calcite, siderite, and chlorite cementation. Porosity reduction has been partially offset by dissolution of feldspar and rock fragments, yielding secondary porosity. Measured porosity values range from 1.2 to 14.7%, averaging 7.6%, indicating that reservoir quality is generally poor to fair.