STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 121 



stretched out. It undergoes its transformations to the pupa and perfect 

 beetle states within the root, anil the latter makes its appearance above 

 ground during the month of August. 



The beetle (Fig. ii, b side view; c back view) is about i-6th of an 

 inch in length, of a chestnut-brown color, and marked and punctured as 

 in tlie figure. 



From analogy we may infer that the beetle feeds on the leaves of the 

 strawberrv, for it is a very general rule with snout-beetles, that the per- 

 fect insects feed on the leaves of such plants as they infest in the larva 

 state. But whether it lives on through the winter as a beetle and does 

 not commence depositing eggs again till the following June; or whether 

 it is double-brooded and produces a second lot of larvic which pass the 

 winter in the roots, are questions which are not yet decided ; and until we 

 get a more comprehensive knowledge of this insect's ways and doings, 

 we shall be in a measure powerless before it. From all the facts that can 

 be obtained, the first hypothesis is the correct one, and in that event we 

 can, in an emergency, easily get rid of this pest by plowing up and 

 destroying the plants soon after they have done bearing, or say about the 

 latter part of June In the southern part of the State. By doing this the 

 whole brood of borers will perish with the plants. Most strawberry- 

 growers renew their plants, in some way or another, about every three 

 years, and where this insect abounds, it will be best subdued by desti^oy- 

 ing the whole bed at the time alread}' suggested and afterwards planting 

 a new one; rather than by annually thinning out the old and leaving 

 the new plants in the same bed. Plere we have an effectual means of 

 extirpating tlic little pest, if, as I believe, the first hypothesis is the cor- 

 rect one; l)ut if the second hypothesis be correct — i. e., if the insect be 

 double-brooded — then it will avail nothing to carry out the above sug- 

 gestions, and we thus see how important it Is to thoroughly understand 

 an Insect's habits in order to properly cope with It. Though we may 

 occasionally hit upon some plan of remedying or preventing an insect's 

 injuries without knowing Its habits, yet as a general rule we but giope in 

 the dark until we have learned Its natural history! 



According to Mr. Miller, all plants infested with this larva are sure to 

 perish, and he has also noticed that old beds are more apt to be injured by 

 it than new ones. 



In one of the roots received from him, I found a parasitic cocoon, so 

 that there is every reason to believe that, as is so very generally the 

 case widi insects, this noxious species has at least one natural enemy 

 which will aid us In keeping It in due bounds. Indeed, Mr. Miller so 

 often found this parasitic cocoon, that he at first surmised that the Crown 

 Borer spun It. But no snout-bcetle larvai spin cocoons. 



This Crown Borer must not be confounded with another white worm 

 of about the same size which lives in the ground and subsists on the 

 roots by devouring them from the outside. This last may always be distin- 

 guished by having six distinct legs near the head, and its habits are quite 

 different. It occurs earlier in the season, and, as I have proved the past 

 summer, is the larva of the little clay-yellow beetle, known as the Grape- 

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