52 SECOND REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Following the reception of the O. ligne'iis from Dr. Coe, Prof. Cook of 

 Lansing, Mich., informed me that the same species, long known as a 

 common insect, had just been discovered as injurious to the strawberry. 



O. picipes has of late years been quite destructive to raspberries, in 

 Europe, destroying in one instance, two acres of the plants, in Corn- 

 wall. The weevil strips the leaves from the plants, destroys the tender 

 shoots, and eats the bark from the canes {Aiiier. EiitomoL, iii, iS8o, p. 

 127). Dr. Packard has recorded (erroneously?) its occurrence in Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



For attack of O. sulcatus and O. picipes upon the raspberry and Pri- 

 mula see Miss Ormerod's Report for 1879, pp. 6, 7; Report of 1880, p. 4, 

 on vines. 



O. tenebricosus, of Europe, feeds on the buds, young shoots, bark 

 and leaves of the Apricot, Nectarine, Peach, and Plum. In the larval 

 state it injures the roots of raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries and 

 garden vegetables {Miss Ormerod's Manual, p. 306). 



Sphenophorus sculptilis Uhler. 

 In the notice of this insect in the First Ann. Report N. Y. State 

 EntomoL, i^^2, pp. 253-263, it is stated (p. 257) that it seems not to 

 have been observed in the State of New York between the years 1861 

 and 1867. The following item, from the Rural American of July 15, 

 1866, appears in the Practical Entomologist, for November, .1866 (vol. 

 ii, p. 20), from a, correspondent in Hannibal, N. Y. : 



Mr. Miner: — Knowing that you are interested in any thing connected 

 with agricultural pursuits, I take the liberty of sending, for your inspec- 

 tion, a few specimens of small beetles, taken out of three hills of corn. 

 They burrow down in the hill, and attach themselves (head downward) 

 to the young corn, about two inches below the surface of the ground, 

 and insert' their proboscis into the corn plant, and suck the juice until 

 the blade turns blue and dies. I find from one to five of them in each 

 hill. One of my neighbors has lost eight acres of corn (old sheep pas- 

 ture) by them. If you can suggest any thing to stop their ravages, you 

 will confer a favor on several subscribers to the Rural American. 



The insects were not identified, the editor merely remarking that the 

 " small beetles sent to us are an insect with which we are not acquainted." 

 Mr. Walsh in copying the article, regrets that the correspondent gave no 

 other characteristic of the beetle except that it was " small," and that the 

 editor had not referred to him or some other entomologist for its name. 

 It is very probable, from the habits given and the locality that the beetle 

 was Sphenophorus sculptilis, which the following year was described as 

 Sphenophorus zec^, by Mr. Walsh, from examples received from Onon- 

 daga county. Hannibal is in Oswego county, which borders Onon- 

 daga county on the north. 



