REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 4. 255 
FOLLER’S ROSE BEETLH, 
(Aramigus Fulleri, Horn.) 
fOrd, COLEOPTERA; Fam. OTIORHYNCHIDZ:. | 
Within the past five or six years frequent complaints have been made 
of the failure of Tea-roses, the cultivation of which has become a very 
important and lucrative branch of flower culture. This failure has 
recently been ascertained to be due to the larva of a little gray snout- 
beetle, shown in its different stages on Plate VU, Fig. 2. 
Mr, Peter Henderson, of Jersey City Heights, N.J., has himself suf- 
fered very much from the work of this insect, and [ have had considerable 
correspondence with him during the winter upon the subject. The fol- 
lowing quotation is from one of my letters replying to his inquiries: 
“The first knowledge which I obtained of this insect was through our 
mutual friend, Mr. A.S, Fuller, who sent me specimens in 1875, the 
species being then undescribed. In 1876 it was described under the 
name of Aramigus Fulleri, by Dr. G. H. Horn, in the proceedings of the 
American Philosephical Society, vol. xv,page94. Mr. Fullerhad found it 
in greenhouses, alu! somewhatinjurious to camellias. Itseems tobequite 
wide-spread, occurring from the Atlantic at least as far west as Mon- 
tana, and its habit of injuriously affecting roses and other green-house 
plants must be looked upon as a comparatively recent acquirement. 
Such instances of newly formed habits are constantly presenting them- 
selves to me in my studies of insects. The beetle seems to be purely 
American, and the genus Aramigus was in fact erected for it and another 
species (Aramigus tesselatus), of about the same size but of a silvery 
white color, with faint green hue, which I have found in Kansas upon 
the well-known “resin weed.” The beetle belongs to the same family, 
and is pretty closely allied to a well known European beetle (Otiorhynchus 
sulcatus, Fabr.), which is larger and darker in color, and is also very 
injurious to greenhouse plants, as well as to some grown out of doors. 
This species also occurs in this country, as I have specimens that were 
taken in Massachusetts. It is the habit of all these beetles, so far as 
their habits are known, to work in the roots of plants while in the larva 
state, just as your Aramigus does. The eggs are doubtless laid upon 
the roots by the female beetle, which burrows into the ground for this 
purpose. Upon inquiry I found that what is evidently this same beetle 
has been more or less injurious to roses in and about Washington, and 
that Mr. A. Jardin was obliged to give up the growth of tea-roses here 
a number of years ago on account of its injuries.” 
Mr. Henderson himself gives the following account of the working of 
this insect in a recent number of the Gardener’s Monthly: 
Tn the plain, practical, and excellent essay of Mr. Bennett on ‘‘Rose Growing in Winter,” among the 
“Causes of Failure” which he gives, he fails to make any mention of the rose-bug, probably for the 
reason that he has so far in his operations been exempt from it, or has overlooked it. 
It is a well known fact that probably. not one gardener out of ten, whether florist or private gardener, 
who attempts to cultivate roses for their flower-beds during the winter months have complete success, 
and I am led to believe, from a pretty thorough investigation of the subject, by a correspondence with 
some of the best growers in six different States, and from what personal observations I have been able 
to make in a number of places where roses are grown, in the vicinity of New York, that in a large 
majority of cases failure is traceable alone to the ravages of this insect. Its operations are so insidious 
that it may be sapping the life-blood from your plants year after year, and if you are ignorant of itg 
existence, you can hardly be blamed for not knowing what is doing the mischief Fa tl ae 
