Supplementary Report on Insects Affecting the Strmcberry. '245 



The strawberry is among the plants subject to injury by these formidable 

 insects, the roots being eaten and the crowns pierced from side to side. The 

 wire worms are most likely to be injurious where strawberries arc planted 

 upon ground recently broken up from sod. 



The Fig Eater {Allorhina nitida, L.) 

 Order Coleoptera Family ScARAB.^aD.E. 



/I 



Fig. S. The Fig Eater (Allorhina nitida, L.); «, grub or larva; b, pupa; c, imago; (/, inaudiljlc 

 of larva; e, anteniiw; /, leg; g, maxilla. 



Thi^ species is included among insects injurious to the strawberry, ui)on 

 the strength of a statement made by Professor Riley, in the first volume of 

 the American Entomologist (p. 246.) Speaking of the adult beetle, he says : 



" In the larval state they feed on the roots of plants, and are sometimes 

 quite injurious to the strawberry." 



This beetle may be readily distinguished from the other large leaf beetles 

 by the fact that the scutellum is invisible, being concealed by a backward 

 projecting process of the prothorax. The head is quadrate, wi^h an obovate 

 extension in front; upper surface with a transverse ridge on each margin 

 and one in the middle. Elytra with rounded shoulders, and slightly narrow- 

 ing posteriorly, with two slight longitudinal ridges on each. General color a 

 beautiful velvety green, with a broad margin of orange yellow around the 

 elytra. Length, three quarters of an inch; width of elytra across the shoul- 

 ders, about one half the length. The antennae have a club at the end similar 

 to that of the previous genera ; all the claws of the feet are simple and equal, 

 neither split nor unequal in size ; the anterior coxte conical and prominent. 



From the common white grub, the larva may be distinguished when liv- 

 ing, by the fact that when placed upon a smooth surface it turns upon its 

 back and progresses in that position, whereas the common white grub crawls 

 awkwardly upon its legs. The larva of Allorhina is further distinguished by 

 the fact that all the segments are densely hairy, while in that of Lachnosterna 

 the three thoracic segments, and the three abdominal segments preceding 

 the last, are destitute of pubescence, and furnished with only a few long^ 

 slender hairs. 



The life history of this species nnd its habits in general are so strictly .sim- 

 il ir, as far as known, to those of the white grub, that the remarks concerning 

 remedies against that species will apply also to this. 



