132 FIRST ANNUAL RErORT OF 



Curculio was considered a new species by Dr. Le Conte, in 1861, and as 

 it has not, so far as I am aware, been described since that time, I sub- 

 join a more complete description of it: 



Madarus vitis, N. Sp.— Length, exclusive of rostrum 0.10. Color uniformly rufous, without 

 maculations, the eyes alone being darker. Highly polished ; rostrum arcuated, stout and about as 

 long as thorax ; thorax and body with extremely minute and distant punctures, anterior margin 

 of thorax abruptly narrowed, especially laterally, into a collar ; elytra slightly undulate, with 4 

 distinct elevations, one on the extreme outer margin close to the thorax, and one on the middle of 

 each, near the extremity. 



As an illustration of the great similarity in the habits of insects 

 belonging to the same genus, I will state that there is a small black 

 Curculio, belonging to the genus Madams and; differing from this 

 Grape-cane Gall-curculio in no other respect but in color, whose larva 

 lives in a somewhat similar gall found on the common creeper (Am- 

 pelopsis quinquefolia) which is very closely related to the vine. This 

 black species is also undescribed and is marked Madams ampelopsis 

 in Mr. Walsh's collection. 



I think it highly probable that the gall of the Grape-cane Curculio 

 is caused more by the punctures which the female beetle makes in de- 

 positing her egg, than by the irritations ot the larva; tor I have found 

 the larva where it had burrowed two and three inches up the cane, 

 away from the gall, without its having caused a corresponding swell- 

 ing; though this has always been in the one-year-old cane. 



Remedy. — If these gall-bearing canes are cut off and burned du- 

 ring the winter there need be little fear of this insect's work, the 

 more especially as it is not secure from parasites, even in its snug re- 

 treat, for I have bred a species of Chalcis fly from the galls, which 

 had evidently destroyed the true gall-maker. 



THE GRAPE-VINE FIDIA— Fidia v it icida, Walsh. 



(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidse.) 



One of the worst foes to the grape-vine that we have in Missouri 

 if* 8 "' 75 'L-~ * s ^ ne Grape-vine Fidia which is represented in the an- 

 nexed Figure 75. It is of a chestnut-brown color, and is 

 densly covered with short and dense whitish hairs which 

 give it a hoary appearance. I have found it very thick 

 inmost of the vineyards which I visited, and it is almost 

 universally miscalled the "•Rose-bug," which is, however, 

 a very different insect. The Grape-vine Fidia was first described by 

 Mr. Walsh in the May, 18G7, number of the Practical Entomologist. It 

 is found in the woods on the wild grape-vine and also on the leaves of 

 the Cercis Canadensis ; but of the tame vines it seems to prefer the 

 Norton's Virginia and Concord. It makes its appearance during the 

 month of June, and by the end of July has generally disappeared, from 

 which fact we may infer that there is but one brood each year. The 



