INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OF CALIFORNIA. 3 



dant at times under thick vegetation in the garden, greenhouses, 

 manure piles, cellars, under boards and around wells. There are no 

 transformations in their development as in insects and the .young 

 appear very much like the fully matured forms, except in size and 

 color. Until ready to feed the young are carried about in a receptacle 

 formed by modified anal plates of the female. Feeding is done during 

 the night and decayed vegetable matter forms the principal diet, but 

 at times the roots and foliage of plants are attacked. There is prob- 

 ably but one generation a year, which begins in the spring. 



Nature of Work.— As previously stated, roots and foliage are some- 

 times devoured, though there is little excepting the presence of the 

 sowbugs themselves to name the marauder. The caps of mushrooms 

 are often attacked when quite young and small holes eaten into them, 

 or they may be entirely destroyed. 2 



Distribution. — This species is widely distributed throughout the 

 State and country. 



Food Plants.— Though normally of little consequence to growing 

 vegetation, many plants growing in greenhouses or in damp favorable 

 localities may be attacked. Mushrooms are recorded as food. 2 Prof. 

 W. E. Collinge reports it as often destructive to the roots of straw- 

 berries. 3 



Control.— In greenhouses the best remedy is a thorough fumigation 

 with hydrocyanic acid gas at the rate of ^ oz. cyanide to every 100 

 cubic feet of air space. If the greenhouse is very tight the cyanide 

 should be reduced to £ oz. to avoid burning to tender foliage. Slices 

 of raw potatoes, 4 carrots or other vegetables rolled in Paris green and 

 placed in the haunts of this pest will prove effective in the green- 

 house, as well as in the garden, cellar or other places. 



: Popenoe, C. H„ Cir. No. 155. Bur. Ent, U. S. Dept. AgTic, p. 8, 1912. 



3 Jr. Bel. of Agric, Vol. XXI. No. 3, p. 210, June, 1914. 



4 Popenoe, C. H., Cir. No. 155, Bur. Ent, U. S. Dept. Agric, p. 9, 1912. 



