184 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE, [vil. 



attacked apples in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New 

 York, and not in Illinois ; but it may have been due to 

 the lessening number of thorns and the increasing 

 number of apple orchards in the east as compared with 

 the west. In 1841, when Harris made his report u])on 

 the injurious insects of Massachusetts, a certain insect 

 known as Ghrysoboihris femorata was briefly desciibcd 

 as "resting upon or flying around the trunks of wliite 

 oak trees and recently cut timber of the same kind of 

 wood;" and he had "repeatedly taken it upon and 

 under the bark of peach trees, also." This insect is 

 now known, however, as the flat-headed apple-tree 

 borer, and Saunders, in his "Insects Injurious to 

 Fruits," in 1883, says nothing about its attacking 

 oaks, but declares it to be "a most formidable enemy 

 to apple culture," and says that "it attacks also the 

 pear, the plum, and sometimes the peach." A certain 

 insect is known in the United States as the buffalo 

 carpet -beetle, because its chief food is carpets and sim- 

 ilar fabrics, but in Europe it is not known as a carpet 

 pest, it being found upon a wild plant known as fig- 

 wort, and in furs and leather articles. The insect 

 changed its habit upon importation into America some 

 twenty years ago. An early naturalist traveling in 

 Colorado found a striped beetle feeding upon wild so- 

 lanums or nightshades. The insect came to be in de- 

 mand among collectors, and it is said that handsome 

 prices were paid for specimens for museums. In the 

 course of time the settlers grew potatoes in Colorado, 

 and the insect took a fancy to them and spread rapidly. 

 It is now known as the Colorado potato -beetle. The 

 first attacks were noticed about thirty years ago, but 

 now the insect is a serious pest wherever potatoes are 



