Circular No. 119. (Revision of Circular No. 67.) issued March 23, v.ao. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, 

 L. O. HOWARD, Entomologist and Chief of Bureau. 



THE CLOVER ROOT-BORER. 



{Hylastinus obscurus Marsham.) 



By F. M. Webster, 

 Jn Charge of Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The clover root-borer {Hylastinus obscurus Marsham) is not a 

 native of America, but has been introduced from Europe and has 

 estabhshed itself in the fields of red clover in some sections of the 

 eastern United States, as well as throughout the States of Oregon 

 and Washington, wherever clover is grown. It frequently commits 

 serious depredations by burrowing in the roots, thereby destroy- 

 ing the plants. It has long been known in Europe as a clover pest, 

 Eichoff" giving its distribution as Germany, Aus- 

 tria, France, England, and the Canary Islands. 

 Other European entomologists have also written 

 of its occurrence, and, according to Bach, it 

 infested large fields of clover near Odenbach> 

 Germany, in 1803, an occurrence evidently coin- 

 cident 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 

 destructive abundance in central New York, it 

 probably occurred in this country long prior to 

 that date. Dr. A. D. Hopkins, who is making a fig. i— The clover root- 

 special stmly of this group of beetles, viz, the SSS.'^rSe 

 Scolytidse, has shown the writer a specimen, from at right. (Author's iiius- 

 the collection of the late Doctor 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 likel}^ that it was injurious 

 to clover even prior to this date without, however, having been 

 detected by farmers. Even at present, both in the Middle West 

 and on the Pacific coast, where it is most destructive, it has 

 attracted little attention, the effects of its ravages being usually 



a Die Europaischen Borkenkafer, p. 97, 1881. 

 [Cir. 119] (1) 



