REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 215 



The pupae »are about 4""" (.15 iucli) in length, and arc yellowish brown 

 in color. In this state they remain from two to three weeks, when the 

 perfect beetles ^emerge. It has been universally stated by authors that 

 this is the only brood which is produced in the course of the year, but we 

 surmise that a second brood will yet be found, particularly in the more 

 southern States, where the insect completes its tranformations as early 

 as the first of May. The newly developed beetles feed upon the leaves 

 as did their predecessors ; and, although their injuries are not usually so 

 marked as are those of the hibernating individuals, owing to the more 

 advanceii state of the foliage, still we have hea,rd reports of considera- 

 ble damage done by them. 



There is no way, so far as we are aware, of getting rid of this pest 

 without considerable hard work. In the first place, much should be 

 done in the late fall, winter, and early spring, in the way of finding out 

 and destroying the hibernating places of the beetles. It has, unfortu- 

 nately, been the custom quite generally to train the vines in extensive vine- 

 yards to posts from which the bark has not been removed. This bark 

 cracks and peels and thus affords most excellent and convenient shelter 

 to the beetles. In the large vineyard of Mr. A. R. PhiUips, of Ar- 

 lington, Ya., we have the present season seen the saddest results from 

 the use of posts of this kind. AU loose bark and splinters should be 

 removed from posts and trellises or other supports, and all rubbish in 

 the vicinity raked up and destroyed. As an actual practical illustration 

 of the amount of good which can be done in this way we can do no bet- 

 ter than quote from a letter, dated March 15, from Mr. W. F. Parker, of 

 TebeauviUe, Ga. 



During the months of December and January I went over the whole vineyard, skin- 

 ning all the bark from the posts, most of which are cypress, trimming all splinters 

 fi'om the slats of which the arbors are made, taking care to remove all tho wood that 

 coald be spared, and raked and piled up the mass, including all the leaves and other 

 trash that was upon the ground, and burnt it. This process I repeated twice, each 

 time killing the beetles. About the^ first of March my vines began to bud and put out 

 fruit, and, upon close inspection, I found tho beetle was ahead of me. There being 

 but few of them I picked them off with the hand, watching, hunting, and catching 

 them two or three times daily, and up to tho tenth had killed, I suppose, about on© 

 himdred in all. I was not able to find one in the whole vineyard until the fifteenth, 

 at which time I found three, and made the further discovery that some had escaped 

 my eye and had been hatched out. On one vine I found, I suppose about fifty worms 

 just hatched and boring the leaves. These I killed with the hand. I saw no signs of 

 the worm on any other vine. Last March I suppose there were five or ten bushels of 

 the pest. 



Inasmuch, however, as a farmer is liable to wake up some fine morn- 

 ing and find his vineyard full of these insects, in a locahty where they 

 have been overlooked before, some remedy besides clean cultivation the 

 previous winter becomes necessary. It has been found the present spring, 

 by experiments in Mr. Phillips's vineyard, that they can be kept in check 

 in the following way : A strip of cotton cloth, 3 by 6 feet, kept open by 

 cross-sticks at the ends, is thoroughly saturated with kerosene and held 

 under the vine, while the supporting-post is struck a sharp blow with a 

 club. The beetles readily fall by the jar, and contact with the kerosene 

 sooner or later destroys them. It will without doubt be found advis- 

 able to make use of two of these sheets in order that the vine may be 

 more completely surrounded. With this simple apparatus three boys 

 can go over a large vineyard almost as fast as they can walk; and if 

 this be done every day, say for a week, in an infested field, the beetles 

 will be quite thoroughly destroyed. After striking the saturated sheet 

 the beetles show no disposition either to ily or to jump. When, how- 

 ever, they strike near the edge oi the cloth, they not iniiequently crawl 



