80 
STRAWBERRY. 
Ground Beetles. Harpalus ruficornis, Fab.; Pterostichus (Omaseus) 
vulgaris, Linn.; Pterostichus (Steropus) madidus, Fab. 
Harpanus nuricornis (left hand), and PrrrosticHus vuncaris (right hand), mag- 
nified, with lines showing nat. length; Strawberry fruit gnawed by H. rujicornis. 
The attack of ‘*Ground Beetles” to Strawberry fruit, which in 
1894 did much mischief at \Woodborough, in Nottinghamshire, on the 
grounds of one Strawberry grower, showed itself again in the past 
season, and on a much more serious scale. It appeared in many 
places in the district in great numbers, and attacked the fruit just 
when it was beginning to ripen, so as to cause serious losses. 
The so-called ‘‘Ground Beetles”’ (Geodephaga, scientifically) were 
formerly supposed to be almost entirely of carnivorous habits. There 
were some exceptions, or ‘partial exceptions, and we owe to the 
researches of Prof. S$. A. Forbes, State Entomologist of Illinois, U.S.A., 
most of the information (so far as I am aware) which we possess up 
to date regarding the nature and proportion of vegetable food to be 
found on dissection and study of contents of many kinds of the pre- 
dacious Ground Beetles. * 
Also the habit of the Corn Ground Beetle, the Zabrus gibbus, of 
feeding in grub state on the roots of corn, and in beetle state on the 
milky grain in ears of Barley, has long been well known. 
But with regard to what may be called straightforward feeding at 
solid root-crops or fruit, so as to do demonstrable damage by the rood 
or by the acre, | am not aware of the fact having been recorded until 
within the last few years, when we have had observation of them on 
Mangolds in this country, and on Strawberry fruit in this country and 
in Holland. 
* See Twelfth Report of the State Entomologist of Illinois, U.S.A., for the 
year 1882, pp. 105-116, 
