no 



Bulletin 190. 



entomologist AVebster had just investigated a similar outbreak in 

 June in Oiiio (Proc. Ass. Ec. Ent. Bull. 20, U. S. Div. Ent. pp. 88- 

 89 ; Can. Ent.. xxxii., 265-271). He found that the injury was 

 done between 8 p. m. and 7:30 a. m. ; the injured fruit was but lit- 

 tle eaten, but nearly every seed was missing and the hulls scattered 

 underneath (see figure 4^). The damage proved very severe, several 

 strawberry growers reporting that half their crop had been ruined 



in 1900 ; nine-tenths of 

 one crop was ruined 

 within 48 hours, and one 

 man did not pick 5 per 

 cent of his Crescents 

 and of ten other varieties 

 none were picked. Some 

 other growers had lost a 

 large portion of their 

 crop from similar depre- 

 dations in 189!? and 1899, 

 but the I'cal culprit was 

 not then discovered. 

 Similar serious injury to 

 ripe strawberries by a 

 closely allied beetle 

 {Ha rj) a I u s ruficornis) 

 \\^s observed in Holland - 

 in 1892 (Biol. Centrall)., 

 xiii., p. 255), and during 

 the years 1894, 1895, . 

 1897-99 in England (see Miss Ormerod's reports for tliese years). 

 The beetles evidently attack the fruits primarily to get the seeds, 

 and consideralde of the pulp adheres to the seeds when they are 

 removed ; l)ut sometimes the beetles eat much of the pulp also. 

 Ripening berries which they have fed upon often soon begin to rot, 

 and they ruin for any purpose every berry they attack. See 

 tiii-ure 43. 



The favorite haunts of the beetles are under stones and rubbish 

 on the ground, hence the usual nuilch on a strawberry bed forms an 



44. — Work of ground-beetles on a straichert'y. Note 

 the hulls of the seeds scattered on the leaf below the 

 fruit. {From Webster.) 



