42 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OP 



hoping that our plum-growing members will make the proper experi- 

 ments and give us the results. 



THE STRAWBERR1T CROWN-BORER.—^^'* fragaritv N. sp. 



This is another indigenous insect, which seems to be confined to 

 our Mississippi Valley, lor I have heard no complaints in any of the 



Atlantic States, of injuries that 

 could be attributed to this weevil. 

 { ^^ WiHH^ ^ ll * ne Maine Fanner for July 25th, 

 1SG7, we find a brief reference, 

 made by Mr. G. E. Brackett of Bel- 

 fast, Me., in answer to a certain 

 "E. B.," of a "worm that eats into 

 the crown of the plant and kills 

 it." The worm referred to was, in all probability, the Crown-borer 

 under consideration, but as no postofnce address of the questioner is 

 given, the paragraph might just as well never have been written, for 

 any light that it throws on the distribution of the insect. However, 

 no such insect has ever been mentioned by our Eastern writers on 

 the Strawberry, and we must necessarily conclude that it does not 

 exist in the Atlantic States. 



This insect has done considerable damage to the strawberry crop 

 in the southern portion of Illinois, especially along the line 

 of the Illinois Central Railroad ; and I have seen evidence of its 

 work in St. Louis county, Mo. At the meeting of the Southern Illi- 

 nois Fruit Growers' Association, held at South Pass, in November, 

 1867, several complaints were made by parties from Anna and Makan- 

 da, oi a white worm which worked in the roots of their strawberries 

 and in 1868, the greater portion of the plants of a ten-acre field at 

 Anna, belonging to Mr. Parker Earle, was destroyed by it. 



In the fall of 1869 I had some correspondence with Mr. Walsh on 

 this insect, and learned that he had succeeded in breeding it to the 

 perfe. i «tate ; and had it not been for his untimely death, its history 

 woula :\'j doubt have been published a year ago. Through the kindness 

 of Jos, iVl. Wilson, of Sterling, Whiteside county, and of J. B. Miller, 

 of Anaa, Union county, Ills., I received during the past year speci- 

 mens !)f the larvae, from which I succeeded in rearing the perfect 

 beetle. It is therefore by the aid of these gentlemen, and especially 

 from the experience of Mr. Miller, that I am enabled to give the 

 above illustrations (Fig. 14) of the Strawberry Crown-borer, and the 

 following necessarily imperfect account of its mode of working. I 

 give them in the hope that they will prompt further investigation, and 

 serve as a clue to enable others who have opportunity, to in- 



