96 



insects. Kerosene emulsion applied in a similar manner and in larger 

 quantity will also kill larva', and the use of tobacco waste in liberal 

 quantities about the roots of the plants is advisable, as it acts both as 

 an insecticide and a fertilizer. 



We UKW also take advantage of the wingless condition of this beetle 

 b}' surrounding the trunks of rose bushes and of the diiferent species 

 of ornamental plants attacked by it with cotton bands, such as are in 

 use against canker-worms and similar species. The bands should be 

 applied ))efore the beotl(\s have found their wa}^ to the plants or after 

 jarring the beetles from them. 



A CALIFORNIA FLOWER BEETLE INJURIOUS TO ROSES. 



During the past sunnner a species of tiower beetle, known as IToplia 

 mllipij(je Lee, and native to Calif oi-nia has ))een observed by Mr. 

 Schwarz to be very destructi\'c to roses at Fresno, Cal., and vicinity. 

 From that gentleman we have also received specimens of the work of 

 the insect, which show that it is capable of quite serious injury to 

 flowers, but is hardly such a pest as the rose-chafer, MacrodaGtyliis 

 suhsphioi^us^ of the East. It is quite probable since injurj'- by this 

 species of Hoplia to roses has not Ijeen given much attention by ento- 

 mologists in available early reports and bulletins, that injury was not 

 noticed until recently but is on the increase, and will probably .con- 

 tinue to multiply and spi'ead, since most insects which feed upon wild 

 roses, when they acquire a taste for cultivated ones, prefer the latter. 



This species w^as recorded in volume V of Insect Life (p. 343) to be 

 doing much damage to the young fruit buds and blossoms of the 

 Muscat grape in vineyards in Fresno Count}^, Cal. The insect was 

 recognized as a yearly visitor, appearing in spring, and up to the 

 time of writing, Maj^ 17, 1893, was known only as an enemy of rose 

 leaves, doing nuich damage to the young buds. The beetles were 

 said to be very numerous, in some vineyards as many as hundreds to a 

 single vine; in one case about three acres were complctelv stripped of 

 buds. The beetles were also present on rosebushes about dwellings. 



A second correspondent in the same county wrote of similar injury 

 to roses and to grapes at about the same time, a fact which has been 

 briefly mentioned on page 386 of volume VII of the same publication. 



This Hoplia is one of twelve described species, all of similar size, 

 resembling each other more or less closely. They are oblong flattened 

 beetles, with the body more or less completely covered ^vith flat scales. 



//. callipyge (figure 25) belongs to a group in which the posterior 

 claws are not cleft, and in which the anterior angles of the thorax are 

 obtuse, and the hairs are long on the thorax, elytra, and pygidium. It 

 is rather dark brown above and incompletely covered with much lighter 

 grayish brown scales on the elytra. The under surface and pygidium 



