Supplementary Report on Insects Affecting the Strmuberri/. 25 1 



To obtain plants free from insects for the establishment of now i)lantations, 

 it is best that they should be taken up early in spring ; but there is a strong 

 probability that even at that time they will contain the eggs of Colaspis. For 

 absolute security against a transfer of these root-worms, tlic plants first set 

 out should be dug up and destroyed as soon as the runners have struck root 

 in sufficient number to leave a fair setting of these new stools. 



Black Fruit- Weevil {Otm-hijnchus sidcaius, Boli.) 

 Order Coleoptera. Family Otiorhynchid.ic. 



This is a European insect, well and unfavorably known to the gardeners 

 of England and the Continent, and destructive, both in the larval and ma- 

 tured conditions, to a variety of horticultural products. It is in the former 

 state that it attacks the strawberry, devouring the roots and penetrating the 

 <jrown somewhat after the methods of the root-worms previously treated. 



Although it has not yet been observed in strawberry fields in America, 

 and has not in fact been reported as an injurious species in this country, still 

 it has been for some time established in the Eastern States, having been im- 

 ported from the old world many years ago. It is proper, therefore, that such 

 brief mention of it be made here as may serve to warn the fruit grower 

 against it, since it has proven in its native home to be one of the most un- 

 manageable of the insect enemies of horticulture. 



The larva is footless, like the crown-borer, and is described as yellowish 

 w'hite, with a brown head, and provided with brownish hairs. It is known 

 to feed upon the roots of raspberries, strawberries, and various garden plants, 

 from midsummer until autumn. It hibernates in the larval stage and trans- 

 forms in the following spring, emerging as a beetle in April or May. 



The adult is oblong, brown black, sub-opaque, the surface sparsely and 

 ■coarsely punctured, and sparsely hairy. The thorax is sub-cylindrical, wid- 

 •est in front of the middle, not longer than wide, covered with rounded, shin- 

 ing tubercles, each bearing a short hair. The elytra are broadly striated, and 

 the stria? coarsely punctured, the intervals each with a row of shining, 

 rounded tubercles, rather closely placed, and with small patches of short 

 yellowish hair irregularly distributed. The body beneath is black and shin- 

 ing, and very sparsely hairy. The length is thirty-four hundredths of an inch. 

 As the adult is wingless like the beetle of the crown-borer, its invasion of a 

 field may be easily guarded against by proper pi-ecautions in transplanting. 



SUMMARY OF LIFE HISTORIES. 



I gave in my Report upon Strawberry Insects, iiublished in tlie Transac- 

 tions for 1883. a brief calendar of a few species there treated, and I insert 

 here a revised calendar, including all the strawberry insects of import- 

 ance mentioned in both that paper and in this. By consulting this tiiblf one 

 may see at a glance the periods of the transformations, and the stages in 

 which each species occurs at any time. Running along the horizontal lines 

 of the table, one has a brief epitome of the life history of each si)ocies : and 

 following the vertical column, one may learn in what stage and situation 

 •each will be found at any given period. 



