318 



I have not been able to secure information in regard to the occurrence 

 of these beetles early in the season, and they seemed to disappear from 

 the fields about the 1st of September. At any rate, so far as reported* 

 July and August are the months during which they are the most de- 

 structive. The burning over of the strawberry fields after the crop of 

 fruit has been removed, has become very popular among strawberry 

 growers, and it is upon the young plants or foliage which appear after 

 this that the beetle is most destructive. However, even where no burn- 

 ing has been done, portions of fields have been attacked and the plants 

 destroyed. From what is now known, it would seem that arsenical 

 poisons might be used to destroy the beetles after the fruit has been 

 removed, but whether this will prove an efficient preventive or not 

 yet remains to be learned. One thing is certain, the insect Is too im- 

 portant to ignore, and the sooner we can learn its life history, and what 

 remedies to apply, the better it will be for the strawberry grower. 



December 8, 1890. 



ANOTHER PARASITIC ROVE BEETLE. 



By D. W. COQUILLETT, Los Angeles, Cal. 



Up to the present time but very little has been published concerning 

 the early stages of the Staphyllnidw, a family of beetles commonly known 

 by the name of " rove beetles." Until quite recently they were generally 

 supposed to feed upon decayed vegetable and animal substances, or 

 upon excrementitious matter, but recent investigations prove that at 

 least a few of the species are predaceous, attacting small, soft-bodied 

 Dipterous larvae. 



On one occasion I saw a Staphylinid larva feeding upon a Dipterous 

 larva in a decayed apple: and I find by referring to my note book that 

 on the 19th of February, 1889, I saw three beetles belonging to the 

 genus Homalota, and each of them had a Dipterous larva in its jaws. 



Some kinds of rove beetles while in the larva state burrow into the 

 puparia of certain species of Diptera, and feed upon the iuternal ])arts. 

 The only other insects known to have a similar habit belong to the 

 orders Hymenoptera and Diptera. Among the literature at my com- 

 mand I find only two instances recorded where' rove beetles have been 

 bred from Dipterous puparia : Aleochara nitida Grav., bred by Mr. P. S. 

 Sprague from a puparium of Anthomyia hrassicce Bouch6. (American 

 Entomologist, ii, 370.) ; and an undetermined species of Aleochara bred 

 fiom a puparium of Anthomyia ceparum Meigen, presumably by Mr. 

 James Fletcher (Sixteenth Annual Kept. Eut. Soc. of Ontario, p. 11). 

 So far as I am aware these two are the only published instances of beetles 

 of any kind having lived in the larva state within the bodies of other 

 insects. 



