298 REPORT OF THE SECEETAEY OF THE 



SNOUT BEETLES INJURIOUS TO FRUITS. 



BY CHAS. V. RILEY, STATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MISSOUEL 

 READ BEFORE THE ILLINOIS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Insects, like other animals, derive their nourishment from 

 the vegetable 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 I might occupy your entire time by 

 dwelling upon it alone. The other animals use as food but a 

 very small portion of the inexhaustible treasures of the vege- 

 table kingdon, and the remainder is unpalatable or even 

 poisonous to them. Not so with 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 ban- 

 quet, 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 farina- 

 ceous ; 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 species 

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

 beginning at the root, we find it rendered knotty and unhealthy 

 on the outside by the common Eoot-louse {Eriosoma pyri, 

 Fitch), while the heart is often entirely destroyed by one or 

 the other of two gigantic Root-borers {Prionis imbricornis, 

 Linn., and P. laticollis, Drury). The trunk is riddled by 

 the larva? of several Long-horn beetles, and pre-eminently by 

 the Two-striped Saperda {Saperda Mvittata, Say), as well as 

 by other smaller beetles; the liber and alburnum are destroyed 



