STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 89 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. 



The Society assembled at the usual hour. 



The President called upon Prof. C. V. Riley, State Entomoloj^^ist, of 

 Missouri, for a paper upon " Snout Beetles injurious to Fruits and Veget- 

 ables," that being the regular paper according to published programme. 

 Prof. Riley responded with a paper, of which the following is a copy : 

 The lecture was illustrated with enlarged representations, accurately 

 drawn and colored, of the insects described ; also, by living specimens in 

 the " lecture box," which were examined with interest by the members. 



SNOUT-BEETLES INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. 



BY CHAS. V. RILEY. 



Insects, like other animals, derive their nourishment from the veg- 

 etable and animal kingdoms; but a glance is sufficient to show that they 

 possess a far greater field of operations than all the other animals combined. 

 Indeed, the food of insects is a theme so large that 1 might occupy your 

 entire time by d\\clling upon it alone. The other animals use as food but 

 a very small portion of the inexhaustible treasures of the vegetable king- 

 dom, and the remainder is unpalatable or even poisonous to them. Not 

 so \\-ith insects, for, from the gigantic Banyan which covers acres with its 

 shade, or the majestic Oak to the invisible fungus, the vegetable creation 

 is one vast banquet, to which they sit down as guests. The larger plant- 

 feeding animals are also generally confined, in their diet, to the leaves, 

 seeds, or stalks, being either foliaceous or farinaceous; but insects make 

 every possible part of a plant yield them valuable provender. We have an 

 excellent illustration of this omnipresent character of insects in those spe- 

 cies which are well known to attack the common apple tree. Thus, begin- 

 ning at the root, we find it rendered knotty and unhealthy on the outside 

 by the common Root-louse, [E7'ioso?na fyri^ Frrcii,) A\-hile the heart is 

 often entirely destroyed by one or the other of two gigantic Root-borers, 

 {Prlonus iinbricortiis^ LiNX., and P. laticollis^ Drury.) The trunk is 

 riddled by the larvai of several Long-horn beetles, and pre-eminently 

 by the Two-striped Saperda, {Sapcrda hivittata^ Say,) as well as by 

 other smaller beetles; the liber and alburnum are destroyed by the Flat- 

 headed Borer, [Chrysobothris fet}iorata^ Fabr.,) the outer bark eaten by 

 bark beetles {Scolytus family) and sucked by Bark-lice peculiar to it. The 

 branches and twigs are bored along the center and pruned by the larvai of 

 the common Pruner i^Elaphidion villosum^ Faur.) and by that of the 

 Parallel Pruner {^B. farallelum^ Lec.,) girdled by the Twig-girdler, 

 [Oncidercs cingulatus, Say*,) sawed and rasped by the Periodical Cica- 



♦ I have bred specimens ot this insect from apple twigs. 



