February, '10] 



SMITH : AMARA ON STRAWBERRY 



97 



parasitism. In any discussion of the progress of the general project, 

 or of any of its ramifications, superparasitism will enter and must be 

 considered. On this account, the writer begs the indulgence of ento- 

 mologists for the introduction of a new term into an already overbur- 

 dened vocabulary. 



AMARA AVIDA SAY AS A STRAWBERRY PEST 



By John B. Smith, Sc. D. 



That certain of the Carabidm will, under some conditions, vary 

 their normal predatory habits by feeding in the adult stage upon vege- 

 table matter is well known, and almost every collector has seen some 

 of the species of Harpalus in late summer feeding upon the seeds of 

 grasses and rag-weed. In Europe Zabrus is known to have similar 

 habits and to appear in some cases as a genuine pest. 



Just why these occasional general resorts to plant food occur has 

 never been satisfactorily explained, for several years in succession may 

 go by without any appearance of 

 the insects on seeds, and then, for 

 a year or two, they will be noticed 

 in many localities. 



In 1900 two species of Harpalus, 

 caliginosus and pemisylvanicus, 

 were found in Pennsylvania and 

 Ohio, injuring strawberries, just 

 ripening, in June, by eating out 

 the seeds, and in the process so 

 mutilating the flesh that the berries 

 became unsalable. Webster in Ohio 

 and Slingerland in New York re- 

 ported these outbreaks, and de- 

 scribed the work of the insects and 

 their habits very carefuUy. But 

 there seems to be no explanation 

 for the sudden increase so early in 

 the season, and the occasion for the 

 resort to the strawberries. 



During the early days of June, 

 strawberry region of Cumberland County, New Jersey, and was ad- 

 vised, as I approached the Maurice River, of a new "bug" that ate 

 into the ripening strawberries and destroyed the entire crop. No one 

 had ever seen its like before, and the descriptions left me wholly at 

 sea concerning its identity. The statement that they ate each other 



Fig. 3, A^fARA AVIDA Say (Original). 

 1909, I made a trip through the 



