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LITERATURE. 
This species was first described by Germar, in 1839, in the 
“Zeitschrift fur die Entomologie,” but it was not known as injuri- 
ous to horticulture until nearly thirty years thereafter, when, in the 
‘Canadian Farmer’ for August 1, 1867 (p. 32), it was reported by 
Mr. Bethune as an enemy of the strawberry. 
In this country it was first noticed by Prof. Riley, in the “Prairie 
Farmer” for August 15, 1868, as infesting the leaves of the new 
growth of grapes, and also as injurious to strawberries. 
In the Transactions of the State Horticultural Society of Illinois 
for 1868, Mr. T. A. E. Holcomb records the occurrence of this insect 
two years previously in Southern Illmois, on the blossoms of Core- 
opsis, which it utterly rumed. He also mentions the dates of its 
earliest appearance on strawberries, raspberries, and other plants, 
and alludes to its injuries to the raspberry near Quincy in 1866. 
In 1869, Prof. Riley again refers to it in the “American Entomolo- 
gist” (volume I, page 207) as a strawberry pest at Alton, and describes 
the method of its injury. He also speaks of it as injurious to the 
quince and the cherry in Southern Illinois, recommends its capture 
with an insect net, and suggests the use of cresylic soap. 
In 1870, it was reported by Dr. Le Baron, then State Entomologist 
of Illinois, in an article published in the ‘‘Prairie Farmer” for 
June 4, as particularly injurious to the young foliage of the pear in 
Pulaski county. 
In his Second Missouri Report, Prof. Riley describes it briefly 
and figures the adult, says that it has a great passion for the 
fruit of the raspberry, reproduces a letter from a correspondent 
respecting its injuries to the strawberry at Centralia, and enumer- 
ates the other plants on which it is known to occur. He also 
recommends propagating its wild food plants, Ceanothus americanus 
and Veronica peregrina, near the strawberry patch as a decoy, and 
then sprinkling them with cresylic soap. In 1878, in an exceed- 
ingly suggestive and practical article on the classification of in- 
jurious insects according to the gravity of their mjuries, Dr. Le Baron 
places this species among strawberry insects of the third or fourth 
class.* 
In the Report of the Ontario Entomological Society for 1873, Mr. 
Saunders refers to the flea negro bug briefly, mentioning its injuries 
to strawberries in Canada in 1867 and 1868; and, finally, in his 
Seventh Missouri Report (1875), Prof. Riley repeats the discussion 
of it already given in his Second Report. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Adult.—From any other strawberry insect this is very easily dis- 
tinguished. Although it has a slight superficial resemblance to a 
beetle, and is often mistaken for one at the first glance, it is a true 
bug, and is hence provided.with a stifi, jomted beak. It is finely 
punctate, glossy black in color, except that the tibie and tarsi are 
*Transactions State Horticultural Society of Illinois, new series, Vol. VII, p. 92. 
