THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 269 



ground in many places where the beetles had been at work was covered 

 with a powdery dust — the seeds eaten off the berries. The seeds of the 

 strawberry are not very easily detached from a ripe fruit without taking 

 more or less of the substance along with il, and in the case of our Har- 

 paiiis caliginosus, there were sometimes small pits eaten out of the berry. 

 [ attributed these to the work of other insects. Miss Ormerod calls at- 

 tention to the increasing seriousness of this injury in England, in her Re- 

 ports for the years 1894, 1S95, 1897, and 1899 ; in one instance, at Bone 

 Hill, near St. Alban's, the beetles were so numerous about 10 p.m., June 

 14, 1897, thal^ members of a family sitting in front of the house supposed 

 that the insects were dropping from the roof. From a comparison of the 

 figure of an injured strawberry, which is used in illustration by Miss 

 Ormerod, in her reports of the ravages of Harpalus ruficornis, with the 

 figure drawn by Mr. Shull, from life, it will be seen that the work of the 

 two species is very much alike. 



As our species is very large and conspicuous, they are easily seen 

 after one has learned where to search for them, and when their work is 

 first observed they can be hunted out and killed, or perhaps they might 

 be poisoned with a mixture of wheat bran, sweetened water and arsenic, 

 placed under boards laid down between the rows of plants. 



The CarabidcC, to which family of insects Harpalus caligmosus be- 

 longs, are generally considered beneficial, as they are supposed to feed, 

 largely at least, upon other insects injurious to the fruit and grains of the 

 husbandman. The number of exceptions to this rule, however, appears to 

 increase as we come to gain a more exact knowledge of the actual food 

 habits of the species of the family, though it must be remembered that 

 these outcroppings of a phytophagous food habit are usually only occa- 

 sional, and perhaps in some cases confined to certain seasons of the 

 year, when, like the robin, they collect a tax from the husbandman for the 

 good that they have done him during other portions of the year. 



In Europe, Zabrus gibbus and some species of Amara have been 

 long known as occasionally destructive, and, in 1892, Dr. J. Ritzema Bos 

 reported Harpalus ruficoruis as destroying ripe strawberries in Goes, 

 Zeeland, Holland. (Biolo. Centralb. XIII., p. 255.) As stated in the 

 foregoing, Miss Ormerod, in her Reports for 1894, 1895, 1897-8-9, has 

 called attention to similar and increasing depredations of the same species 

 on the strawberry in England. The latter author also finds Calathus 



