﻿14 SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



joy and gratitude any less dangerous remedy that will prove as effect- 

 ual; but until such is discovered, they will continue to use that 

 which has saved them so much labor and given so much satisfaction. 

 I would therefore say to those agriculturists of the East who are in 

 any way alarmed by what has been written on this subject, and who 

 hesitate to use the Paris Green mixture — profit by the experience of 

 your more western brethren, and do not allow the voracious Dory- 

 phora to destroy your potatoes, when so simple and cheap a remedy 

 is at hand ! 



THE BEETLE EATS AS AVELL AS THE LARVA. 



As the statement has been quite frequently made during the year, 

 in Eastern papers, that the beetle does not feed, and that consequently 

 there is nothing to fear from them early in the year, the fact may as 

 well be reiterated that the beetle does feed, though not quite so rav- 

 enously as the larva. But as they are on hand as soon as the young 

 j)lants peep through the ground, and as these first spring beetles are 

 the source of all the trouble that follows later in the season, it is very 

 important to seek and destroy them. 



IT PASSES THE WINTER IX THE BEETLE STATE. 



The statement is continually made that the insect hibernates as a 

 larva. " I must insist that with us it never does, but that the last brood 

 invariably hibernates in the perfect beetle state. Specimens have 

 been found at a depth of eight and even ten feet below the surface, 

 but the great majority do not descend beyond eighteen or twenty 

 inches, and many will not enter the ground at all if they can find 

 other substances above ground that will shelter them sufficiently. 

 The beetles are found abundantly above the ground in the month of 

 April in the latitude of St. Louis, but often reenter it after they have 

 •once left, especially during cold, damp weather." — [4th Keport. 



NEW FOOD PLANTS. 



Mr. A. W. Hoffmeister, of Ft. Madison, Iowa, an entomologist, the 

 accuracy of whose observations may be relied on, writes : 



Last j-ear, alter all the early potatoes had been taken up and the late ones either 

 wilted throuirh exces.'^ive dryness or eaten up by the Colorado gentleman, I was aston- 

 ished to tind so many 10-lined spearmen in tne lower part of town, while in the upper 

 part they were reasonably scarce ; but 1 was more astonished to lind that the hirv:i3 had 

 stripped the Vei-bascnm of its leaves. 



The Mullein, belonging to the Figwort family, must therefore be 

 iidded to the list of plants on which the insect lives and nourishes. An 

 item went the rounds of the papers during the year to the effect that 



