76 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



Buprestidce. 



Capnodis tenebrionis L., distributed over southern Europe, attacks 

 Prunus spinosa L. and various fruit trees, working something like 

 our Chrysobothris femorata. Sphenoptera neglecta Klug attacks 

 cotton throughout the nothern Nile provinces, the larvae hollowing 

 out the stems. 



A similar (perhaps identical) species, S. gossypii Kerr., injures 

 cotton in the same way over the cotton area of India. S. hypogea 

 is a serious enemy of peanuts in South India, the larvae boring 

 into the underground root stalks. Agrilus grisator Kerr. bores in 

 lemon trees in the same territory, while the larvae of Belionata 

 parasina Thunb. is also common in India and bores the trunks of 

 guava and mango plants. Small leaf-mining Buprestids, Aphan- 

 isticus consanguineus Kits, and A. kriigeri Rits. attack sugar cane 

 in. Java, though the injuries have not been very important up to 

 the present time. 



Bostrychidce. 



Dinoderus minutus Fabr. is common in the bamboo in India, 

 and has been reared from cut sugar cane. Rhizopertha collaris 

 Erichson bores into the limbs and branches of the apple in Aus- 

 tralia, and is regarded as quite troublesome. Bostrychopsis jesu- 

 ita Fabr. is the orange and fig borer of Australia, though it 

 attacks also lemon and apple. The female places her eggs just 

 beneath the bark, and the larvse tunnel the hard wood mostly 

 longitudinally. On account of its borings, it has been called the 

 augur beetle. 



Scarabaeidce. 



An important European member of this family is the Melo- 

 lontha melolontha L., the common cockchafer, or May-bug. It is 

 injurious in both the larval and adult stages, the grubs feeding 

 on the roots of grasses, vegetables and young trees, and the adults 

 upon foliage of elm, oak, etc., often completely stripping the trees. 

 Most European works on practical entomology give this species 

 extended attention, perhaps more on account of its commonness 

 than its real importance as a pest. In India, Anomala varians 

 Oliv. is injurious to rice and other cereals, the larvae feeding on the 

 roots. Anomala vitis Fabr. injures the grape in Europe, Algeria 

 and Tunis, the adults feeding on the foliage and the larva? on the 

 roots of the plant, and also on roots of various grasses. One of the 

 very troublesome sugar-cane pests of Porto Rico is a specie's of 

 Lachnosterna, the grubs of which devour the roots of the plant. 

 The control of this insect is one of the acute problems before the 

 sugar-cane planters of the Island. Ligyrus bituberculatus Beauv. 



