86 STRAWBERRY. 
July 24th, showing that the severe attack was still continued, with an 
increased amount of the small kind previously noticed, and some 
additional details regarding state of ground, non-presence of insecti- 
vora, &C. :— 
‘‘Nores, July 24th.—Beetles still on the Strawberries in vast 
quantities. A well just dug has the surface of the water entirely 
covered with the beetles. The small kind, to all appearance a tiny 
edition of the brown large ones, now swarm everywhere, and seem on 
the increase. The villagers complain that the beetles now infest 
their homes.’ * 
With regard to treatment of the ground, Mr. Rice observed :— 
‘Some of the fields worst affected were dug and left rough round 
the Strawberries, thus affording an easy shelter for the beetles; while, 
where the ground in the same fields was left undug after the winter, 
the Strawberries have escaped the pest. Some of the fields badly 
infested were not cultivated with town manure, but supplied from 
piggeries.”’ 
Regarding the absence or scarcity of moles and of birds, Mr. Rice 
remarked :— 
‘“‘The district as a whole has few moles, and where they are un- 
known the pest is worse. The whole district has few birds this season 
through the loss of the past severe winter. Hedgehogs have been 
tried, but at present the success is unknown. Agricultural salt was 
largely used, but with no effect.”—(W. R.) 
From the above observations and careful investigations of the 
Strawberry growers in the district where the crops were infested by 
the Ground Beetles on the ripening fruit, there was no doubt of the 
very serious nature of attack, and the identifications of various skilled 
and trustworthy entomologists (independently of my own) left no doubt 
of the beetles causing the devastation being Ground Beetles, Geode- 
phaga, that is, of the kinds specified. 
But, beyond this, being desirous of watching the method of opera- 
tions of the beetles, I took the opportunity of the numbers sent me for 
special observation. Firstly, on July 4th, I put about eight of H. 
ruficornis in a glass jar together with four good-sized ripe Strawberries. 
On the following morning I found, on examining the Strawberries, 
that each of the berries had been more or less eaten on the surface. 
Sometimes the outer surface was destroyed by being gnawed away in 
* Regarding the disposition of the H. ruficornis to get into houses, John Curtis 
writes in ‘Farm Insects,’ at p. 218, of his own observation of them ‘‘as abundant 
in one season in the garden, house, and outhouses’’; and when at Fontainebleau, 
several of the beetles flew to the candles in the evening, ‘‘ showing they are noctur- 
nal, and provided with ample wings for flight.” 
