346 REPOKT OF THE SECRETAEY OP THB 



Union couuty, I received during the past year specimens of 

 the larvae, from which I succeeded in rearing the perfect 

 beetle. It is therefore by the aid of these gentlemen, and 

 especially from the experience of Mr. Miller, that I am enabled 

 to give you the above illustrations (Fig. 11) of the Strawberry 

 Crown Borer, and the following necessarily imperfect account 

 of its mode of working. I give them in the hope that thej 

 will prompt further investigation, and serve as a clue to enable 

 our excellent friend Dr. Le Baron to increase our knowledge of 

 this pest; for there is much yet to learn of its habits, and 

 consequently of the best means of fighting it. 



From the middle of June to the middle of July in Southern 

 Illinois, and later further north, the larva hatches from an egg 

 which, in all probability, is deposited in the crown of the 

 plant, and it immediately commences to bore its way down- 

 wards, into the pith. Here it remains till it has acquired its 

 full size, working in the thick bulbous root and often eating 

 through the more woody portions, so that when frost sets in, 

 the plant easily breaks off and is heaved out of the ground. 

 When full grown it presents the appearance of Figure 11, a, 

 being a white grub with arched back and tawny-yellow head, 

 and measuring about l-5th of an inch when stretched out. 

 It undergoes its transformations to the pupa and perfect beetle 

 states within the root, and the latter makes its appearance 

 above ground during the month of August. 



The beetle (Fig. \1, b side view ; c back view) is about l-6tli 

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

 and punctured as in the figure. 



From analogy we may infer that the beetle feeds on the 

 leaves of the strawberry, for it is a very general rule with 

 snout-beetles, that the perfect insects fe^d 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 larvae which pass 



