GROUND-BEETLES EATING STRAWBERRIES. 



Harpalxis caliginosus Kudi pennsylv anions. 



Oil June 25tli, 1900, a correspondent at Leeclibnrg, Pa., wrote: 

 " We are sending jou sample of bugs that liave almost ruined our 

 strawberry crop this season. They are under the straw mulch, 

 tliousands of them, and they attack the berries when they begin 

 to color, eating the seeds and a part of the surface of tlie fruits." 

 More of the insects were sent us on Julv 3d and 9th, and we 

 glean the following interesting facts from the letters accompany- 

 ing the specimens : " AVe caught the beetles right on the berries 

 feeding. They eat the berries only at night, beginning about 8:30 

 or 9 o'clock p. m. We had to take a liirht to watch them working:. 

 Since writine; you on June 25tli the beetles have become more 

 destructive, completely taking one-fourth of an acre of late straw- 

 berries in three nights t -^ * ^ We estimate our damage at $350. 

 The beetles would start on the very largest berries and at last would 

 eat green berries too ; they completely destroyed everything on the 

 plants. Our soil is a clay loam with no stones near the strawberry 

 patch, which contains two acres. We find from 6 to 10 beetles 

 around each hill of berries. The bed was a clover sod planted in 

 early potatoes in spring of 1899, and then planted in strawberries the 

 following July and August ; a straw mulch about two inches thick 

 was put on in December. On one side of the bed are black raspberries 

 and on the other side vegetables are growing. At iirst the beetles ate 

 only the surface of the berries, but they now know they have found 

 something good and eat the whole berry. They always go in pairs." 



The insects thus accused of eating strawberries were the two 

 kinds of very common large black ground-beetles shown in tigures 

 41 and 42 ; most of the damage was done by the larger kind, 

 but few of the smaller ones beino- found. As tliese beetles had 

 lieretofore borne a good reputation as predaceous enemies of other 



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