14-i SHORT NOTICES, [1899 



widely prevalent as a seriously destructive attack to both ripe and 

 ripeuiug Strawberry fruit, especially where grown in considerable 

 areas for market supply. The three most common kinds are black 

 strong made beetles, with strong biting jaws, long legs, and long 

 horns, and from half an inch or rather more to about three-quarters 

 of an inch in length, and of a somewhat flat and oval shape. The 

 H. ruficornis is distinguishable by the legs and also the horns being 

 usually red (whence the name of nijicontis.) ; also by the wing-cases 

 (so long as the specimens have not been rubbed) being covered with a 

 thick yellowish or greyish down. Beneath the wing-cases there are 

 powerful H-i)iiis, which are not possessed by either of the other kinds. 

 For this reason the rujicornis, which has a habit of transporting itself 

 on the wing in numbers sufficient to be described as swarms on 

 summer evenings, has a power of being much more troublesome than 

 the others; of these the Pterostichus ( = Ontaseiis) vuhiaris is a little 

 larger than the foregoing, sometimes nearly two-thirds of an inch in 

 length, and is wholly black and shining. 



The Pterostichm { = Steropus) madidus may be as much as three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, and is also black, unless the legs have 

 red thighs, and also wingless, but distinguishable by the hinder edge 

 of the fore body being a good deal narrower than the wing-cases. 

 There is a smaller species, Calathiis cisteloidcs, which is also injurious 

 to Strawberry fruit, which is black with brownish red legs and horns, 

 and has the wings wholly absent or imperfect, but this species is only 

 from a quarter to half an inch in length, and is not as frequently 

 reported as hurtful as the other, and especially as the winged kind 

 rujicoiins. 



The method of attack is for the beetles to be under the earth round 

 the Strawberry plants by day, in cracks in the ground or having holes 

 and runs through the earth and litter ; and after dark they come out 

 and feed on the Strawberry fruit. Kipe or unripe are both liable to 

 attack, which often is carried on by eating oflf the surface of the fruit 

 or portions of it, or by clearing away the seeds or (in the case of the 

 ripe fruit) by sometimes eating holes deeply into the substance of the 

 berry. 



It was not until July, 1898, that any serviceable practical method 

 was reported of keeping the seriously destructive ravages of the beetles 

 in check, but in that month, on the 19th, Messrs. Laxton, of Bedford, 

 were good enough to inform me that they had almost entirely destroyed 

 the beetles by the following plan: — " We purchased a large quantity of 

 cheap pudding basins early this spring ; these we let into the ground, 

 level with the surface, at distances of a few yards apart, and kept 

 them baited with pieces of ' lights ' and sugar-water. When the 

 weather was dry we often caught half a basinful of a night, until the 



