The Lancaster Farmer 



Prot S. S. BATVON, Editor. 



LANCASTER, PA., JULY, i875. 



Vol. VIL No. 7. 



POTATO BEETLES — [Continued.] 



(7,iiiia tiiUmiilil, el. ill.) 

 AVhat ! aiiotlu'r striped pol;Ui> iM'ftK'? Ex- 

 ailly si>; and one, tno, wliosi" iiilliicnce we 

 liavc felt, and wliiis,' t'dini and rmure we have 

 known from early biiylmod -long liclore it was 

 known that sneli an insi'ct as the "Coloraih) 

 Potato l>eetle" w!is in llit^ conntry. However 

 lilthy and repulsive tlie Colorado pest may ap- 

 pear to others, to US the -'Three- 

 lined" or "Three-striped fiotato 

 beetle" is almost ineom|iaralily 

 "more so," where it oeenrs in 

 hiii^e numbers, whieh is ncrasion- 

 ■ ally the ease. This insect is much 

 smaller than any of the species 

 heretofore described, the size be- 

 uv^ indicated liy the hair line on 

 the right of the lignre ; but incolorand family 

 relationship, as well as in its genei-al habits, it 

 makes some approximation to the famous Col- 

 orado scourge. Its small si/e, its restrietetl 

 thorax, its longer limbs, its paler colors, and 

 its distinct Irilineatitui, must be snilicient to 

 distinguish it from all other striped potato 

 beetles, by any person who can ever hope to 

 learn the proniinent distinctions between the 

 genera and species of insects. This much, as- 

 sisted by a careful study of our illustration 

 (Fig. 1), will be sullicient, we think, to enable 

 the intelligent readers of The Faij-mkr to 

 identify the insect when they sec it. It has 

 often been mistaken for the Colorado species, 

 long before that insect made its apjiearance 

 liere. This in.sect may, howv;ver, be more surely 

 distinguished from the aforenamed species, by 

 the sing- 

 ular hab- 

 its larva 

 has o f 

 caati ng 



its excrc- , snxm^^B 



tions on WkV Ilr \»\iBB 



as seen at 

 ((, Fiij. 2. 

 Tlie pur- 

 pose of /'iij'-'- "» ^ c 

 this is not clearly known, but the mo.st 

 . reitsonable .supposition is, that its oliject is con- 

 cealment from its natural em niies, whatever 

 thi;y may be. Letter h shows an upper view 

 of the terminal segments of the larva, with 

 the anal oriliee on to)), wluTcas other larva' 

 havt^ it at the extreme end or beneath. Lettei' 

 c exhibits a Ventral view of the pupa, and d 

 the eggs on the under side of the potato leaf, 

 not much unlike those of Duryplinra. Thes(^ 

 eggs are deposited by the female^ of the pre- 

 vious year, in Jlay, and by the ^mmI .of the 

 month of .Ivnie the larva; go into the ground, 

 and in about two weeks thereafter come forth 

 a perfict beetle, as seen at Fig. 1, and are 

 ready for a second brood ; and it is this second 

 brood that is always the most numerous and 

 destructive ; lint fortunately the potatoes have 

 then ma<le such headway that, generally speak- 

 ing, the damage done is not very serious, al- 

 though sonic bad cases of infest.ltion are on 

 record. The second brwxl remains in the 

 gromid until the following spring. 



Whatever remedies may be employed to de- 



s t r o y 

 the Co- 

 lorado 

 beetle, 

 nay be 

 also a)) 

 p 1 i e d 



Fig.^. i^^m,\^ like ef- 



fect to these insects. 



Another enuny to the potato plant, is the 

 "Potato Stalk \V kevil" (l/antdus irino- 



ttttus), and we have had dozens of potato stalks, 

 of a sickly character, brought to us, all of which 

 hail a while grub liken, Fig. .'i, excavating their 

 heart. The female, letter c, makes an incision 

 in the tender stalk with her long snout, anil 

 deposits one or more eggs therein - usually 

 only (Mie— and as soiuias it has hatched out, 

 the young larva bores into the heart of the 

 stalk, and continues downward until it reaches 

 the end. under ground, where it changes to a 

 pui)a, as seenat '<, ami there remains mitil Au- 

 gust or.Si']itember, when it comes forth a small 

 black beetle, the h'Ugth of the hair line at the 

 left of the illustration <•. This insect belongs 

 to tlie gri'at (\iri-uli<im- "Snout beetle" family 

 (CrHCUl.lcn.Nri).!'.), and we know no remedy 

 against it but, to pull U|i the iulcsted stalks, slit 

 them ojien, and kill the larva, the pupa or the 

 beetle that may be found therein. The beetle 

 hybernates during the winter, and we have 

 taken it late in antunm and early in spring, 

 nnder bark and Hat stones, on the suimy sidi^ 

 of a hill. When it fust conu's forth from the 

 pupa, it has three black velvety spots at the 

 base of the thorax, and is covere<l all over with 

 short, line, ashen, prostrate hairs ; but these 

 easily rub off and leave the whole insect a jet 

 black. Mtirc anon. 



FLAT-HEADED APPLE-TREE BORER. 



[ ChryxobolhrU femoratu.J 

 The lan-a of this insect, by way of distinc- 

 tion, has been learned the " Flat-headed Apple- 

 tree borer," in order that it may not b(^ con- 

 foimded with the "Hound-headed" or "Striped 

 Apple-tree borer," illustrated on the lirstpag(^ 

 of the ,lunc nundier of TuK Faumkk. When 

 inipiiry has been made of us as to the form of 

 this borer, we have, in an ott'-hand way, re- 

 plied, that it very nearly approached the 

 form of a "hovsc-shoe nail," or, except in 

 color, hke a "tadpole," and the reader can 

 now see how near the larva, a, approaches 

 tho.se forms. Likening it to a tadpcde, how- 

 ever, was not fortunate, for one of our (Mirres- 

 pondents simiehow confounded it with the 

 "pear-slug ;" there- 

 fore its identification 

 can only be tixed by 

 the addition of its 

 scientilic name and il- 

 lustrations. This in- 

 sect belongs to the old 

 family group of bee- 

 tles known as Serui- 

 coiiNiA, or " Saw- 

 horned beetles;" 

 whereas the otherspe- 

 cies of borer alluded to 

 belongs to the LoNOi- 

 toMrA, or " Long-'2 

 horned " family group, 

 very materially fnjm its long-horned " con- 

 frere in its habits, and esiiecially in this, that 

 it does- not invariably infest the base of the 

 trec-truidv, but is usually found higher up, or 

 among the larger branches. 



We collectt'd specimens of this in.se<rt in 

 Lancaster and York counties more than thirty 

 years ago ; but at least fifty years ago we have 

 known a little bird belonging to the " Wood- 

 pecker" family, familiarly called the " Sa]!- 

 sucker," {I'iciix villoxu.^.) to puncture the bark 

 of the apple trees, which must have been in 

 search of these Hat-headed borers, soiniilimes 

 making a half-dozen or more perforations in a 

 row, in order to cai)ture them. IJut w(! were 

 then instructed to shoot them without mercy, 

 because it was supposed they punctured the 

 bark thus in order to suck the sap, as their 

 name implied ; and as this was the very life of 

 till' tree, they were mdvei-sally regarded as 

 <me of the farmers' worst enemies. Wi' have 

 reason also to believe that they are still so con- 



Moreover, it dillei 



sidereil by many people, and have known 

 them to be stoned out of orchards not ten 

 years ago, not so much biMtau.se they were 

 "sucking out the sap of the trees, ;is because it 

 was alliged there were no bun r.t present, and 

 the owners diil not want their trees mutilated, 

 just as if the bird did not know iM'tter than 

 they did whether there wius a worm piesiiitor 

 not. These binls an- not likely to make a 

 mistake as to the jitrxruic of a worm, but Ihey 

 may abandon ils pursuit without securing it, 

 because it may he t<K) deeply imlH'dded in the 

 solid wood. 



We look our first .specimen of this insect in 



the suiniiier of 1S12, high U| the Uouiid- 



To]i, in ^'ork coimly, where we discovered it 

 silting on the sunny sid<' of a small pine tree. 

 Of course we did not then know -nor for some 

 years afterwanl - that it was an enemy to the 

 apple-tree ; moreover, there were no apple, 

 peach or cherry trees within half a mile of the 

 place, but plenty of pines, oaks, chestnuta 

 and chestnut-oaks. 



We have occ;i.sionally heard complaints 

 from dilTereiit pla<es inthis county of dam- 

 ages done to the trunksand larger branches of 

 the ajiple, pear, pcai h and cherry, wliicli. from 

 the nature of the "hurl,"— although no speci- 

 mens were sent to u.s — we liave no doubt were 

 the depredations of this insect. 



According to I'rof. Kiley's sewnih nnnutd 

 r(7/ocf on the noxious insects of Missouri, iis 

 well as from some of the agricidtural journals 

 of the Western States, the " Flat-headed 

 Aiiple-tree borer," w:is very destructive in 

 those States (luring the year 1S74, especiallv 

 in young or recently pliuited trees, or those 

 enervated by bad culture, bad pruning, un- 

 friendly soil, or a dry season. f)n <me occa- 

 sion we received alxiiit a half pint of these in- 

 .se(tts, and two or threi' other allied species, 

 from the shores of Lake Michigan, where, ac- 

 conliug to our informant, (the late .los. Cliilds,) 

 they could have been gathered up on the beach 

 by tliousands. They must have been driven 

 out into the lake by "the winds, fallen in and 

 drowned, and tb.eii driven back to the shore 

 by the waves. We make this record only to 

 show the source from whence noxious in.sects 

 are likelv to come. The trees known to have 

 been iniested by this in.sect are the oaks, 

 maples, scycamore, mountain :ush, liudcii, 

 box-elder, 'beech, aiiple, pear, plum, cherry 

 and iieach ; and if there is any significance in 

 these facts, it is, that as our forest trees arc 

 cut away we may expect more of the.se insects 

 to infest the cultivated kinds, tbr they are 

 " bouiKl to make a living " scmu'whcre. 



Our illustrations convey a belter idea of their 

 form and appearance, in their various stages 

 of development, than any description we can 

 give. Fig. (( is the hurti. a whitish grub, set 

 with short, sparse, stiff bristles. In piiint of 

 fiict. the head is not very conspicuous ; it and 

 the first segment of tlie"lH)dy being retractile 

 within the second -like the claw of a cat- so 

 that nothing protrudes but the ends of a pair 

 of blackish Jaws {)iiawllhlfM). It is the en- 

 larged seeonil thoracic segment tliat gives it 

 the"" distinctive character of " llaldicaded." 

 Fig. b is the ptipn, at tlrst white, but subsc- 

 tpieutly approximating to the color of the ma- 

 ture iKcth', according to Prof. Uiley, who was 

 the first to figure and describe it. Fig. c is an un- 

 derside vii'w of the thoracic and lirst alKlomlnal 

 segmentsof the larva. Fig. 'Ms the i(/i«g Jrper- 

 fect beetle of the natural size ; a dark greenish 

 bronze in color above, and a coppery or brassy 

 colfu- beiuath. AVe have fouml it most nu- 

 merous sunning itself on the flat .surface of oltj 

 stumiis, in clearings and orchards, where wc 



1" ' 



hi 



the„ -.- „^ .,..,.. , 



according to Riley they are a p^^le yel}o\y, ant} 



stumiis, in clearings aial orchards, wliere WC 

 inesnme it must liave bred, from tlie fact of 

 having al.so found the larva under the l)i\rk of 

 the s:ime. The iggs we hayc iieyei: s^fjii, but 



