lOS FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



abide by his decision. Under tlie circumstances, witliout typical specimens, we sliould 

 have most right to conclude that tlie two are distinct, and should be slow to charge 

 faults of omission, where such prominent and constant characters are concerned. S. 

 4-spinosus Say may prove to be c? of midicus Say. This uncertainty as to tlie species 

 intended by some of the old and honored autliors, who did not understand, as we do, 

 tlie variation to whicli species are subject, is constantly confronting the entomologist, 

 and should teach him tlie importance of mentioning the number of specimens from 

 whicli a description is drawn up. 



The 2 might be referred to muticus Say, as described in the same work, but is 

 easily distinguished by LeCoute's subsidiary diagnosis. (Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. II, p. 167.) 



THE ROSE GRA.Y¥.R—3facrodaGtylus suhspi7iosus (Fabr.). 

 (Ord. CoLEOPTERA, Fam. Meloloxthid.e.) 



In the summer of 1872, this beetle was iinprecedentedly 



abundant in some parts of Missouri, and more especially to 



the west of us, in Kansas. I reproduce, therefore, in the 



main, an article written for the Transactions of the Kansas 



'■ State Board of Agriculture. 



Dear Sir — Having been appointed by our State Horticultural 

 Society (at the meeting held at Humboldt this week) to conduct cor- 

 respondence with you relative to an insect that troubles us greatly, 

 which we are unable to name correctly, I send you samples and de- 

 scription of the work done by it. 



The extent of country over which it does damage enough to make 

 it noticeable is, as far as I can learn, confined to only two or three 

 counties — Allen, Woodson, Linn and Bourbon. It has only been some 

 three years since it appeared to be so troublesome as to call the atten- 

 tion of persons of common observation. Last year (1871), my first 

 year in Kansas, I noticed it in the grape bloom, but not in destructive 

 numbers. It reappeared May 25th this year, and began eating the 

 grape bloom, and, where very numerous, even the foliage. I have 

 seen vines entirely stripped of leaves, except the net-work. They do 

 not trouble the fruit after it is as large as shot (No. 1). Whole trees, 

 and I am told, whole orchards of peaches are eaten up — only the fruit. 

 Several beetles stay on one peach until it is gone before going to 

 another. 



I have seen small three-year-old cherry trees stripped of leaves 

 and the fruit eaten entirely up too. They are about gone now ; three 

 weeks will suffice them, I guess. We know of no remedy except 

 hand-picking, but some who have only a few grapes to watch catch 

 them in a basin of water into which they easily drop when disturbed, 

 and so save their crop. The beetle devours the bloom of the black- 

 berry and sometimes the young fruit, I can't find a correct descrip- 

 tion of it in your reports published by the State of Missouri. Colas- 

 pis Uavida comes the nearest. But the description of the '^ Grape 

 Fidia," in Bush's catalogue, comes nearer, according to my observa- 



