HABITS OF THE GROUND BEETLES. 85 
the owner; while the mass of the other plantings have been left an 
utter wreck, the whole crop being marked by the beetles. 
«The beetles lhe round the plant, and under the earth, which is 
covered with straw and litter, having their holes and runs through the 
earth and litter; the opening being through the litter and just under 
the bunch of fruit attacked. The beetles are without number, and 
seem most active an hour after dark, being full and dormant at break 
of day, and much deeper in the soil. The beetles are very quick and 
alert, which makes it very difficult to catch them actually eating the 
fruit, though some were so found; and beetles supplied with clean 
untouched Strawberries in a tin settled down at once to the attack, 
and commenced by taking out the seeds one after another, keeping 
hold of each for a few seconds. The only beetles were—(1) the 
brown; (2) the black; and (3) what seemed to be a small edition of 
No. 1. Also a few of a rusty-red colour, and half the size of No. 1.* 
‘«The Strawberries as a whole are clean from any attack of small 
insects; only two from hundreds examined having any life on them 
which could be seen by a small glass, and which seemed like young 
green fly. ‘The ground was entirely free from grubs, and even next 
morning, after a hard rain, the number of common snails was not an 
ordinary average. Some of the large holes in the riper fruit seem as 
though possibly the common snails had been at them, though the mass 
of the fruit is free from any injury past that of the outside skin. 
«The green fruit is really cleared of its skin, and many of the seeds 
left. . . . The green Strawberries dry up and wither after an attack, 
while those riper turn moist and soon rot. 
«The soil is full of soot, and has been also heavily dressed with 
salt; but where the soot can be seen making the soil black, the beetles 
are quite at home. ‘The soil under each plant is full of underground 
channels, and is quite eaten away. The ground seems to have been 
cultivated when rather stiff and hard, and the humps of soil left, so as 
to form a ready hiding-place for the beetles which are so numerous. 
‘«The only mole I could hear of was in the field of Strawberries 
belonging to a man suffering very heavily from the pest, yet he claims 
where the mole works the fruit is more or less untouched.” 
(The beetles have been caught by vessels set below the ground-level, 
into which they fall, and are killed by some destructive mixture). ‘‘ Also 
flesh, covered by pieces of thick sacking, attracts a number, which are 
easily killed; yet both methods do not diminish the vast multitude to 
any degree.”’ 
The following further observations were sent by Mr. W. Rice on 
* For identification of beetles, see p, 82.—Eb. 
+ Mr. Rice also noted that in the case of the riper fruit the seeds were especially 
attacked, and lay under the berries as thickly as hail. 
