SB 

 818 

 C578 

 ENT 



JO. 67. 



ted States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, 



L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist. 



THE CLOVER ROOT-BORER. 



(Hylastinus obscurus Marsham.) 



By F. M. Webster, 

 Jn Charge of Cereal and Forage-plant Insect Investigations. 



This insect is not a native of America, but has been introduced from 

 Europe and has established itself in the fields of red clover in some 

 sections of the eastern United States. It frequently commits serious 

 depredations by burrowing in the roots, thereby 

 destroying them. It has long been known in 

 Europe as a clover pest, Eichhoff 1 giving its dis- 

 tribution as Germany, Austria, France, England, 

 and the Canary Islands. Other European ento- 

 mologists have also written of its occurrence, and, 

 according to Bach, it infested large fields of clover 

 near Odenbach, Germany, in 1803, an occurrence 

 evidently coincident with its description by Marsham 

 in 1802. 



While it did not come to notice in America as 

 a pest until about 1878, when it was found in de- 

 structive abundance in central New York, it prob- 

 ably occurred in the country long prior to that date. 

 Dr. Hopkins, who is making a special study of this 

 group of beetles, viz. the Scolytidte, has shown the writer a specimen, 

 from the collection of the late Dr. Fitch, with a New York label attached 

 to the pin, referring to a note which he has been unable to find. In all 

 probability, however, this specimen antedates the discovery of the insect 

 by Riley in 1878. Besides, owing to the obscure habits of the pest, it is 

 more than likely that it was injurious to clover even prior to this date 

 without, however, having been detected by farmers. Even at present, 

 in the Middle West, where it is most destructive, it has attracted little 

 attention, the effects of its ravages being usually attributed to adverse 

 meteorological conditions. The pest seems to have spread much more 

 rapidly westward, as it probably occurs nearly to the Mississippi River; 

 but it has attracted no attention along the Atlantic coast south of Penn- 

 sylvania. In that State, however, the writer recently found it abundant 



<*■" 



Fig, 1". — Mylastinus nb- 

 scurus: Adult insect- 

 natural size at right 

 (original). 



1 Die Europaischen Borkenkafer, p. !t7, 1881. 



