46 



pany is sending out hermetically sealed vials containing a fungus which is said to 

 be most destructive to larv;e like the one under consideration. Do you know any- 

 thing about it? 



I get Insect Life regularly aud value it highly. * * " [E. M. Sheltou, Queens- 

 land, Australia, Juue 8, 1892. 



Reply. — * * - -pj^g insect which you report as so seriously atfecting sugar- 

 cane plantations on the Queensland coast is, from the very nature of the case, as you 

 will readily see, a most difficult one to counteract. The occurrence of this insect 

 and its work have never been brought to my attention and its habits in the imago 

 state are altogether unknown to me, though I doubt not similar to various American 

 Lachnosternas. In this couutry, particularly here iu Washington, we have very 

 BuccessfuUy treated lawns infested with white grub by soaking the ground with 

 kerosene emulsiou, as described in the first volume of Insect Life on page 48, aud 

 I believe that this will perhaps prove to be the only practical remedy against your 

 insect. The emulsiou of kerosene could be distributed by means of some of the in- 

 jecting devices manufactured in France for use in disinfecting vineyards of the 

 Phylloxera with bisulphide of carbon, and this latter substance, too, would be an 

 effective remedy against the grub were it not for the expense of applying it on so 

 large a scale. The expense of the application would also be a great obstacle to the 

 use of kerosenee mulsion, though this last would be much cheaper than the bisul- 

 phide. At this distance and in entire ignorance of the habits of the adult insect, I 

 can give you no further advice as to the best remedies. It is possible that the food- 

 habits of the adult insect will furnish a more easy and practical, not to say cheaper, 

 method of controlling it. This would be the case if the beetle is known to feed on 

 any plant which could be sprayed with Paris green or Loudon purple. I should be 

 glad to get specimens of the insect in all stages, aud also, if you can furnish it, a 

 full account of its habits in other than the larva state. 



With regard to the White Grub fuugus which the French firms are advertising, I 

 have no confidence whatever in it. I have experimented with it and believe that 

 the results have been generally overstated and that the fungus is being pushed merely 

 as a speculation. * * * [July 14, 1892.] 



A Snout-beetle, Otiorhynchus ovatus, undei Carpets. 



Inclosed please find a number of beetles found uuder the edge of a carpet. Have 

 been noticed by a number of families in this vicinity under carpets. Would like to 

 know whether they eat the car]3et or prey on the " Buffalo Bug" Avhich has been 

 destroying the carpet under which the inclosed were found. Wo uld be pleased to 

 learn the name, habits, and something of the life-history of these insects. — [Paul 

 Van Riper, Michigan, July 27, 1892. 



Reply. — The beetles which you find under carpets in your vicinity belong to the 

 species known as Otiorhynchus ovatusLiiun., of the Snout-beetle family Otiorhynchidae. 

 This insect is common to Europe and Siberia and was doubtless introduced at an 

 early date, although the first record of its occurrences here was published in 1873. 

 It is a northern species, being restricted to our most Northern States and Canada, 

 aud is in some localities commonly known as "the graveyard bug." In the Annual 

 Report of the State Board of Agriculture of Michigan for 1883 (pp. 425-429) Mr. C. 

 M. Weed gave an account of the main facts in the life-history of the insect, propos- 

 ing for it the name " Strawberry Crow-n Girdler"from the habits of the larva of 

 girdling the crowns of the Strawberry. Prof. A. J. Cook found the adults of this 

 species feeding on the leaves of Borage, and it is probably, like a congeneric and 

 closely related species, O. sidcatus Fab., a very general feeder. A short account of 

 the latter will be found iu vol. iv of this periodical (pp. 222-223). 



Your experience in finding these beetles congregated indoors is interesting but 

 not unprecedented. In the Michigan report, above referred to, brief mention is made 

 of Dr. J. A. Lintner's having found a house swarming with them, and in Dr. Lintner's 



