152 Control of Parasites 



Cicada or Seventeen-year Locust, when it emerges from its 

 long underground life, becomes troublesome by laying eggs 

 in twigs and branches, causing their death, and may become 

 seriously injurious to young trees, in old trees causing only 

 unsightliness. 



The sparrow is the best protection, otherwise only mechan- 

 ical destruction is available. 



2. Beetles or Coleoptera have horny wings which form 

 a cover o\er the posterior, folded membranaceous wings. 

 Of the sixty-one families of beetles, seven contain species 

 doing considerable damage, namely the snout -beetles or 

 weevils, the bark-beetles, the long-horned, round-headed 

 wood-borers, the flat-headed wood-borers, the clicking- 

 beetles, the cockchafers, and the leaf-beetles. Besides 

 these there are some minor pests found in other families. 

 In most cases, it is the larvae or "grubs" which do the 

 damage, although occasionally the beetles themselves are 

 the culprits. 



Weevils or Snout-beetles or CiircuUos are mostly black, 

 brown, or gray beetles, easily recognized by their beak-like 

 mouth-parts. A very large number of species do damage 

 of the most varied kind. In some cases the beetles as well 

 as the lar\'ai feed on the leaves; the white or yellowish larvae 

 found in the chestnuts and hickory nuts, as well as in apples 

 and other fruit and in peas, belong to this family, while 

 the plum curculio feeds as a beetle on buds and leaves, and 

 as a larva on the fruit; some bore into the young shoots to lay 

 their eggs, causing them to die and fall, others into the pith 

 of older branchlets; some lay their eggs in the midrib of 

 leaves, causing their fall; and some roll the leaves into pecu- 

 liar shapes either singly or in bunches, causing their death; 

 the larvae of others, again, injure the roots; and others be- 

 have like bark-beetles, destroying portions of the cambium, 



