268 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of the substance of the seeds in great abundance. Material collected in 

 early morning and examined microscopically, showed the alimentary 

 canals literally packed with this sort of food. I did not take the beetles 

 in the act of working their destruction, as they are exceedingly shy, but 

 some days after my return, a letter was received from Mr. J. Marion 

 Shull, North Hampton, Ohio, enclosing with a cluster of injured straw- 

 berries a specimen of the pest, and stating that he had observed them in 

 the very act. This was my first letter from Mr. Shull, and he could have 

 known nothing of my investigations, and I am indebted to him for the 

 drawings from which the accompanying illustrations were engraved. 



The damage has, the present year, proved very severe, several 

 strawberry growers reporting that half their crop had been ruined, Mr. 

 Shull states that nine-tenths of their crop was destroyed within 48 hours, 

 while Mr. A. H. Miller, of Osborne, stated that of his Crescents not five 

 per cent, were picked, and of ten other varieties none were picked at all. 

 This was the first year that Mr. Miller had been troubled by the pest, 

 though he is perfectly familiar with the insect itself. Of the different 

 varieties attacked, the Cumberland, Haverland and Greenville are said to 

 suffer the worst, though this may not result from any selection of varieties 

 by the beetles, but may be owing to better opportunities for hiding away 

 during the day. Prof. M. V. Slingerland wrote me early in July of this 

 year, stating that he had received complaints of similar injuries to the 

 strawberry in New York. The beetles have been excessively abundant in 

 the city of Wooster, literally swarming during some evenings and driving 

 people from their front porches and verandas, forcing them to sit indoors 

 during the early evenings, especially in the near vicinity of the electric 

 lights. Although there are many acres of strawberries grown in the near 

 vicinity of the city, strangely enough, I have been unable to learn of any 

 injury from the attacks of these beetles, and have wondered if it were 

 possible that the electric lights had attracted them from the surrounding 

 fields to the city. 



Both Dr. Bos and Miss Ormerod state that Harpalus ruficornis eats 

 the fruit as well as the seeds of strawberries, but I think that further in- 

 vestigation of the European species will disclose the fact that, like its 

 American relative, it is the seeds that are its favourite food, and though, as 

 stated by Miss Ormerod, it will live in confinement on strawberries, yet 

 when free in the fields it will prefer the seeds, as in her Twenty-first Re- 

 port, p 115, she quotes one of her correspondents as stating that the 



