STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 203 



To begin with there is the notorious white grub. This greedy 

 and omnivorous feeder has been so often described, both in the 

 larva state and in the equally familiar shape of the May or June 

 beetle (Lachnosterna quercina, Knock) that there is no need to 

 dwell on its "points'' in this paper. Its work in the strawberry 

 plantation is seldom suspected until it becomes suddenly apparent 

 in the withered and loosened plants which the feeble runners have 

 not sufficient vitality to replace. In those sections of the country 

 where the white grub most abounds, some such result as this may 

 be looked for every third summer. Next to the lawn or meadow, 

 the strawberry bed, — especially where the plants are not confined 

 in rows but allowed to spread freely, affords the May beetle the 

 safest ground in which to place her eggs. To do this she burrows 

 into the earth and laj's them among the tender roots on which the 

 little grubs begin to feed as soon as hatched. As they are at first 

 very small and grow rather slowly, their presence will not greatly 

 affect the plants. During their second summer, however, they are 

 very voracious, and by the months of July and August, will have 

 left very few roots to support the plants in the ground. Beneath 

 almost every withered plant will be found the full grown, dirty 

 white grub, to which it owed its destruction. When the straw- 

 berry bed has reached this condition there is no remedy but to put 

 in the plow and summon the inhabitants of the poultry yard to "a 

 feast of fat things,''' at which the robins and several other birds 

 will be sure to assist. 



During the past summer there was some complaint by straw- 

 berry growers in this vicinity of a little grub or worm which bored 

 into the crown of the plant and through the larger roots. I was 

 not able to get specimens of the perfect insect, but think it will 

 prove to be the strawberry crown borer {Analcis fragarice) first 

 described by Prof. Riley in his third report on the Insects of 

 Missouri. 



The parent of this small but mischievous grub is a little beetle 

 of the Curculio family, about one-sixth of an inch long, nearly 

 cylindrical and of an oval form. The color is chestnut brown, 

 with two rather large blackish spots on the outer edge of each 

 wing cover. The thorax is densely covered with minute pit like 

 depressions, and the wing covers with impressed lines. About 

 midsummer this beetle appears in the strawberry beds and deposits 

 its eggs in the crowns of the plants. The grubs upon hatching, 

 bore into the pith of the stem and through the larger roots, caus- 

 ing the plants to decay. The grub changes to pupa within the 



