1900] 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



65 



of some kinds may be laid at any time. The food of t» ire worms has a much larger range 

 than is the case with the white grubs, many, and these are the most injurious species, 



feed upon the roots of grain and other 

 crops, grass, shrubs and trees. Some feed 

 on decaying wood and other vegetable mat- 

 ter, and some, at any rate occasionally, are 

 even predaceous. On the whole, however, 

 the class must be considered as decidedly 

 injurious. In the beetle state Click-beetles 

 (Fig. 21) are not considered very destructive 

 but one species, Gorymhites tarsalis, Melsh , 

 has of late years been 

 detected as a rather 

 frequent enemy of 

 the apple, feeding 

 in the flowers and 

 destroying the es- 

 sential organs, and 

 also eating the 

 young foliage. As 



~~^ ^ — \,» -^ 



Fig, 



21. — Click- beetles and Wireworms — 2, 3, 6, 9, 

 11, magnified. 



Fig. 20.— Pupa of Click- 

 beetle. 



a general remedy for both of the above named classes of insects, 

 late ploughing has been found beneficial, by breaking up the pu- 

 pal cells at the time the insect is in a tender condition and exposing 

 it to many dangers when it is either a pupa or an immature beetle, and unable to make 

 another cell. The trapping of the mature Olick-beetles by using pieces of potato poisoned 

 with Paris green placed on the ground near where the beetles seem to be abundant is 

 claimed by some experimenters to have been attended with considerable success. The 

 June beetles are largely foliage eaters and are specially attracted to certain kinds of 

 trees. Many may be destroyed by spraying these attractive trees with Paris green and 

 lime, which may be applied as strongly as one pound of Paris green with two pounds of 

 lime in 100 gallons of water. 



The Pea Weevil (Bruchus pisorum, L., Fig 22). — Year after year, the loss in the 

 pea crop from that old and well known enemy, the Pea Weevil, is simply appalling. 



The life history is well known and it must be claimed that 

 the remedy is practical, that is, effective, cheap and easy, 

 and yet it is not applied regularly by pea growers as it 

 ought to be. As far as I can learn, the large seed mer- 

 chants and the large growers do fumigate their pease with 

 bisulphide of carbon and destroy the contained insects. 

 The trouble seems to be with the small growers and farmers 

 who save a fe^ bushels for seed and do not take the trouble 

 to treat these small quantities. As is well known, the Pea 

 Weevil comes to maturity in autumn and if the season is favorable emerges at that time 

 of the year and passes the winter under rubbish and in out-buildings. Many, however, 

 remain in the pease and do not emerge until the following spring, when they are frequent- 

 ly sown with the seed. The perfect insects are very active little beetles which fly easily 

 to the pea fields about the time the blossoms appear. They feed for some time on the 

 flowers and leaves. As soon as the young pods are formed, the females lay their eggs 

 upon them, from which the grubs hatch and eat their way into the pod and penetrate 

 the forming seeds. 



Remedies : The best remedies for this insect are the treatment of the seed 

 with bisulphide of carbon, late sowing and the holding over of seed. Fumigat- 

 ing with bisulphide of carbon is the method now generally adopted by seed merchants 

 and most of them have special houses for " bugging pease." Farmers can easily make 

 use of this same method by taking an ordinary 45 gallon coal oil barrel which will hold five 

 bushels of pease. According to the quantity of seed to be treated, one ounce of bisul- 

 phide is used to every 100 pounds of pease, that is three ounces if the barrel is filled. 

 The chemical may be either placed in a flit open basin on the top, or it may be poured 

 5 EN. 



Fig 22.— Pea Weevil— greatly 

 enlarged, and of natural size. 



