AugUStj '12] GILLETTE: CLEONUS CANESCENS 367 



CLEONUS CANESCENS LEG. AS A FRUIT TREE PEST 



By C. P. Gillette 



This insect has been reported to me on several occasions as a pest 

 to young fruit trees on the western slope of the Rocky Mountain range 

 in Colorado and Utah. 



On June 30, 1908, Mr. O. B. Whipple, who at that time was Field 

 Horticulturist for the Colorado Experiment Station, at Grand Junction, 

 reported this insect to me as injurious to the foliage of young peach 

 trees in an orchard near Grand Junction. 



On July 10th of the same year, Mr. George P. Weldon, who at that 

 time was acting as Field Entomologist on the western slope for the 

 Colorado Experiment Station, reported the same insect to me as de- 



Figure 4. Cleonus canescens Lee; Adult beetle enlarged 6 diameters. Original, 

 M. A. Palmer, Delineator. 



structive to the buds and young leaves of newh' set peach and apricot 

 trees. 



On June 20, 1910, ]Mr. Weldon took the same insect at West Lake, 

 Utah, where he found it doing serious injury to the foliage of newly set 

 apple trees. ]\Ir. Weldon reported that the beetles were present in 

 considerable numbers on every tree that he examined. 



On June 27th, of the same year, ]\Ir. E. P. Taylor, who was also 

 acting as Field Entomologist on the western slope for the Colorado 

 Station, sent me specimens of this beetle, which he reported as being 

 destructive to the young leaves of newly set apple trees in the Grand 

 Valley. 



It is quite evident from these records that this beetle is a native and 

 that it normally feeds upon the native food plants of the sections 

 where it occasionally becomes injurious to the fruit trees. In every 

 in.stance where the injury was reported, the trees were newly set on 

 virgin soil. 



