REPORTS OF AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 293 



" Shall we Encourage the Further Planting of Apple Orchards in Ingham 

 County?" by W. Asa Rowe. 



"Utility Plus Beauty," by C. B. Stebbins. 



The question of Mr. Rowe's paper was discussed at considerable length — he 

 and Mr. Jones taking the affirmative, A. F. Wood and some others the 

 negative. 



Mr. Rowe asked President Beal what varieties of winter apples he would 

 recommend for planting in this comity. 



The president named Northern Spy, Red Canada (top-grafted) and Ameri- 

 can Golden Russet. 



Meeting for the Exhibition of Small Fruits, June 19. 



The committee, composed of Messrs. E. Bidelman, C. B. Stebbins, and L. B. 

 Baker, were requested to classify the fruit on exhibition, and graded it as fol- 

 lows, the highest first, and following in the order of merit : 



Monarch of the West, Cumberland Triumph, Colonel Cheney, President 

 Lincoln and Sharpless, Chas. Downing, Windsor Chief, Captain Jack, Wilson, 

 Kentucky, and Green Prolific. 



The Windsor Chief was the most regular in shape, and the most beautiful 

 berry on exhibition. Sharpless was the largest. Several berries of this 

 variety measured six inches in circumference, and many measured five inches. 

 It is very irregular in shape and rough in appearance, but solid all the way 

 through. 



At this meeting Prof. A. J. Cook read the following paper on 



A NEW INSECT ENEMY. 



Paria aterrima Oliv — Strawberry leaf beetle. Order Coleoptera. Family 

 Chrysomelidae. 



As will be seen, the little beetle whose life history I am about to recount is 

 a near relative of the Colorado potato beetle, and also of the grape vine and 

 cabbage flea beetles, as it belongs to the same order and family. The insects 

 of this family — Chrysomelidae — so named from the golden, metallic lustre 

 which often characterizes them, are all phytophagous, or plant-eaters. They 

 are often called leaf-beetles, from the fact that they all prey upon the foliage 

 of plants. This habit usually characterizes the grubs or larvae no less than the 

 beetles or imagos. 



In this family the tarsi or feet are four jointed, the bodies are oval, though 

 in some cases they are somewhat elongated, so as to resemble the beetles of the 

 borer family — Cerambycide, — but their shorter antennas and leaf -eating habits 

 quickly distinguish them from the borers. 



The little beetle in question belongs to the sub-family Chrysomelides, in 

 which the antennae are wide apart, the body oval, body wholly covered by the 

 elytra or wing-covers, while the larvae live exposed on the leaves. This descrip- 

 tion will at once call to your minds the ubiquitous pest, the Colorado potato 

 beetle. But our subject belongs to a distinct tribe, the Eumolpini ; in which 

 the prothorax is very convex, narrower than the abdomen, its margin indistinct, 

 the antennae are slender, nearly filiform, and about half as long as the body, 

 the interior coxae is globose, the 3d joint of the tarsi deeply bilobed, and the 

 claws are bifid. 



In the genus Paria the elytra or wing-covers are punctured in rows, the claws 



