QQ Mississippi Valley Horticultural Society. 



both the abiUty and the disposition to do serious mischief in the strawberry 

 Held. It was detected last September, at Normal, by the roadside, in plants- 

 which had escaped from cultivation. About seventy-five per cent, of the 

 crowns of these plants were infested by a small, reddish caterpillar, which 

 had eaten out the interior of the crown, inflicting an injury similar to that 

 done by the crown-borer in Southern Illinois, and certainly equally serious. 

 These caterpillars were about two-fifths of an inch (7 to 8 mm.) in length,, 

 reddish pink on the back, fading into dull yellow on the second and 

 third segments. The head is yellow, with the sutures deeply indented. The 



Fig. 10. Strawbekry Crown Mi.nek {Anursia llneatclla, Zdler) : Larva, magnifled nine di- 

 ameters. From strawberry crown. H Garmin. 



anterior part of the segment behind the head is smooth and horny, and of a 

 pale, brownish yellow color. On each segment are a few shining reddish 

 dots, or slightly elevated tubercles, from each of which arises a very fine, 

 short yellowish hair. These dots are arranged in imperfect rows, a single 

 one across the third, fourth and last segments, and a more or less perfect 

 double row on the others. The sides and under surface are of a dull whitish 

 color, becoming faintly reddish on the hinder segments. A row of setigerous 

 tubercles, like those on the back, crosses each ventral segment. The feet 

 and false legs are yellowish white, the former tipped with dark brown. 



These caterpillars were quite active, creeping rapidly about Avhen their 

 burrows were opened, and often letting themselves drop to the ground by a 

 thread. Mr. Wm. S.iunders, of Ontario, Canada, is to be credited with the 

 first published mention of their injuries to the strawberry, and I can not do 

 better than to quote from his account of it, in the annual report of the En- 

 tomological Society of the Province of Ontario for the year 1872 : 



" This is a very troublesome insect where it occurs plentifully, and takes a 

 liking to the strawberry; but happily this is not often the case. We have 

 never seen it affecting this fruit anywhere except on the grounds of Mr. 

 Luke Bishop, of St. Thomas, Ont., who first called our attention to it about 

 the middle of May, 1869, when he brought us a few specimens. During 1868 

 and 1869 they played sad havoc with his plants, destroying a large propor- 

 tion of tiiem. 



" On the eighth of June we visited the grounds of Mr. Bishop, and found 

 his strawberry beds badly infested— -indeed almost destroyed — by this pest, 

 along with a lejtf-roUer, to be presently described. The borer eats irregular 

 channels through the crown, sometimes excavating large chambers, at other 

 times merely girdling it in various directions, here and there eating its way 



