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FULLER’S ROSE-BEETLE.—(Aramigus Fulleri, Horn). 
BY JAMES FLETCHER, OTTAWA. 
From time to time complaints come to us of injuries done to greenhouse 
plants by some insect which gives abundant evidence of its presence, by the 
nibbled state of the leaves ; but which is seldom detected. When such com- 
plaints are received, it is suggested that a light be taken into the greenhouse and 
search made at night. In most instances the culprit is found to be a small brown 
snout-beetle, shown at Fig. 28. This is knownas Fuller’s Rose-Beetle. There is 
no doubt that this insect is far commoner than is generally supposed. Its habit 
of feeding at night and hiding during the day time, added to the protection 
afforded it by its colour, saves it from detection until it attracts notice by its ex- 
cessive numbers. 
This is a comparatively new enemy, having only been described in 1876, 
when Dr. Horn named it after Mr. A.S. Fuller, who first brought it to his 
notice. It had however, been sent to Dr. J. A. Lintner, State Entomologist of 
New York, two years previous to that date. 
A good deal has been written in different journals and reports upon the best 
way to overcome this pest ; but it still keeps turning up in new localities every 
year, and is now reported as a greenhouse pest from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
coast. 
Accounts of its life-history and habits are given in the Annual Report of the 
United States Entomologist for 1878, and Dr. Lintner’s report for 1885. From 
these accounts we find that this insect injures greenhouse plants of many kinds; 
but its favourite food is undoubtedly the rose, and after this perhaps various 
kinds of lilies. The injury done by the mature beetle is how- 
ever slight, compared with that of the larva (Fig. 26), which 
is a thick white legless grub, when full grown 3} of an inch 
in length, the body curved, wrinkled above and flattened be- 
low, covered with short tawny bristles. Head yellow with 
dark, black-tipped, sharp mandibles, with which it consumes 
Fig. 26. the young rootlets of various greenhouse plants, and by the 
destruction of these fibres with which the plant takes its 
food, soon destroys the vitality of the plant. Prof. Riley says :—(Ann. 
Rep., 1878, p. 256). “The most serious injury is done by the larve, which feed 
principally upon the more tender rootlets and thus attack the plant in its most 
essential parts. I have had a quite healthy rosebush totally destroyed in three 
weeks’ time, by about three dozen of the larvee, which were placed in the pot con- 
taining it.” When plants are attacked at the root by larve they have generally 
a characteristic appearance. The new wood is weak and spindly, the colour is 
unhealthy and very few flowers are produced. When this is the case they seldom 
recover. I have seen plants of which every one of the young rootlets were 
destroyed, and which threw out new roots close to the surface ; but these never 
did much good, and florists tell me that it pays better to throw away such plants 
and replace them with young, vigorous bushes. There is frequently much care- 
lessness amongst florists in not appreciating the serious nature of an introduction 
of this pest into their premises, and it is not at all uncommon to see plants 
destroyed by the larvee, simply pulled out and other healthy plants set in the 
same soil. This of course is agreat mistake, and is a practice which should never 
be followed. When roses are grown under glass in the usual way, viz.:—in beds, 
if the soil is found to be infested by the larve of this insect, it must all be 
