264 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



percentage of the annual fruit crop. In some 

 seasons the strawberry fields swarm with the 

 Weevils, which, in the adult stage of their lives, 

 devour the leaves of the strawberry plants, and 

 as larvae attack the roots. In a single season 

 a large strawberry grower in Kent lost 500 

 by the ravages of these beetles. Unfortunately 

 the Weevils are not the only beetles which 

 attack the strawberry, for the larva of the 

 Green Rose Chafer (Cetonia aurata) feeds upon 

 the roots, and as a perfect beetle does most 

 serious damage by devouring the strawberry 

 blossom ; while the fruit is particularly liable to 

 the attacks of certain species of ground beetles, 

 so that the insect foes of the strawberry grower 

 are very numerous, and a cause of constant loss 

 and anxiety. 



Probably the most injurious of all our 

 orchard insect foes is the Winter Moth (Cheima- 

 tobia bruniata), sometimes also known as the 

 Evesham Moth. Apart from the fact of its being 

 one of our insect foes, the Winter Moth is of 

 considerable interest, owing to the striking 

 difference between the male and female moths, 

 the latter having very imperfectly developed 

 wings, which are quite useless as organs of 

 flight. The insect has gained one of its popular 

 names, that of the Winter Moth, from the fact 

 that the male moths may be seen on the wing 

 from about the middle of October to about the 

 end of November, or even a little later should 

 the weather continue mild, just before, and for 

 some time after sunset ; while its second popular 

 name of Evesham Moth originated from its 



