ENTOMOLOGY 273 



tivated roses to be protected are in the vicinity of wild roses which 

 breed the beetles year after year, it will probably be useless to attempt 

 hand picking. Under some circumstances it may be profitable to 

 destroy wild roses that furnish a breeding place. In general, how- 

 ever, it should be borne in mind that the beetles fly over a consid- 

 erable distance and that until fence corners and waste lands of the 

 surrounding country are cleaned of the native roses, more or less 

 trouble will always be experienced. It is said that a spray of Paris 

 green 'will kill the beetles. (Mont. E. S. B. 46.) 



The Rose Slugs. Roses grown in gardens in the United States 

 are attacked by three species of sawflies which live, in their larval 

 stages, on the foliage, skeletonizing the leaves or cutting out holes of 

 variable size and greatly disfiguring the plants. The larvaB, popularly 

 known as rose slugs, slugworms and roseworms, have been classified 

 as the American rose slug, the bristly roseworm, and the coiled or 

 curled roseworm, respectively. For the sake of uniformity they 

 may all be called rose slugs. The first of these, as its common name 

 indicates, is native to America; the other two are evidently ac- 

 cidental introductions from Europe, as they are now common to both 

 hemispheres. As with most other sawflies, they are found more 

 abundantly in the North, but are quite troublesome as far southward 

 as Maryland and Kansas. They practically confine their depreda- 

 tions to the flower garden, and roses are the only plants that are 

 seriously damaged by them. Injury is due entirely to the larvaB, and 

 the three species, each representing a distinct genus, differ consid- 

 erably in appearance in all stages, as also in their life history and 

 manner of work. 



The American 'Rose Slug.* The sawfly which produces the 

 American rose slug is a four-winged bee-like insect of a deep shining 

 black color, with translucent smoky wings having dark-brown veins 

 and a brown spot near the middle of the edge of the forewings. The 

 wing expanse of the female is about two-fifths of an inch and the 

 length of the body is fully one-fifth of an inch. The male is a little 

 smaller. 



The larva or slug when full grown is about one-third of an inch 

 long and sluglike, with the thoracic joints enlarged. The body is 

 soft and delicate, but not gelatinous and slimy, as is the case with 

 some sawfly larvae for example, the pear slug. The color is gree.n 

 above and yellowish on the lower surface. The head is small, oval, 

 and yellowish, and has a black spot on each side inclosing the eye. 



The parent sawflies issue from the earth at varying times from 

 about the 1st of April, or earlier in the District of Columbia, to the 

 third week in May, or, according to Harris, until the middle of June 

 in Massachusetts, beginning at about the time when the roses first 

 unfold their leaves and continuing until they are in full leaf. During 

 this period pairing takes place and eggs are deposited. The females 

 are particularly sluggish in the cool of morning and are not often 

 seen in flight, resting during the greater part of the day on tin 1 leaves. 

 When disturbed they draw up their legs and fall to the ground. The 



*See illustration on page 655. 



