THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 265 



HARPALUS CALIGINOSUS AS A STRAWBERRY PEST, WITH 

 NOTES ON OTHER PHYTOPHAGUS CARABID^. 



EY F. M. WEBSTER, WOOSTER, OHIO. 



In nearly all of our books relating to beneficial insects, published 

 within the last twenty years, there is almost sure to be found, somewhere, 

 the figure of a larva tragically devouring a smaller larva, the larger hav- 

 ing been originally figured as that of Harpalus caliginosiis. Although 

 attention has for some time been called to the fact that the larva thus 

 figured really belongs to another species, the true H. caligmosus being as 

 yet unknown, yet the use of the figure in its old application still goes on. 

 The carnivorous habits of the beetle itself, however, have been pointed 

 out by Dr. Lintner, in his Twelfth Report, p. 209, where it is recorded as 

 feeding on the army worm, and in Insect Life, p. 228, Vol. VII., as feed- 

 ing upon grasshoppers. The writer has also observed it preying upon 

 other insects. For this reason, notwithstanding its known fondness for 

 seeds and grain, it has been looked upon, generally, as a beneficial 

 species, its known vegetable food consisting either of seeds of no eco- 

 nomic value, or the amount of grain being too small to be taken into con- 

 sideration. 



On June 12, 1898, I received from Mr. J. A. Fisher, Flushing, Ohio, 

 complaints of a very serious injury to ripening strawberries, and Mr. C. 

 W. Mally, then my assistant, was sent out to investigate the cause of the 

 trouble. Other strawberry growers, in the neighborhood of Flushing, were 

 found to be also suffering from the same depredation, but, though Mr. 

 Mally worked faithfully, he was not able to solve the problem of the 

 author of the ravages, which, in some cases, resulted in a loss of the 

 larger portion of the crop. Considerable numbers of a Lygseid, Myodocha 

 serripes, were found about the berry fields, some of them in the act of 

 puncturing the fruit, and, I might add here, that in nearly every case 

 where complaints of this injury have been reported to me, this last insect 

 has been sent as the culprit. On 25th of the same month, Mr. Oliver 

 Garlough, Clifton, Ohio, in almost the opposite corner of the State, report- 

 ed the same trouble, except perhaps more emphasized, also accusing the 

 Myodocha as the cause thereof. 



My assistant had noticed in his investigations at Flushing, that 

 wherever the strawberries had been attacked there would be found, on 

 the ground or on prostrate leaves directly underneath, scattered fragments 



