394 NATURAL HISTOEY OF HAWAII. 



1887; the steel-bhie hidybird.-^" the ocheroiis ladvbird,-^^ the eight-marked lady- 

 bird''- and the mealy-bug or "Brownie" ladybird.-^-^ 



The Japanese Beetle. 



While the ladybirds belong to a famil\- in the order of beetles.-'^ and are 

 among the most beneficial members of that great order, they are by no means 

 so typical in appearance as is the injurious Japanese beetle,35 ^yjiieh is an ex- 

 ceediugiy troublesome and aggressive pest in orchards, gardens and door- 

 yards. By reason of its ravenous appetite for the leaves of certain plants, espe- 

 cially roses, foliage plants, strawberries, grapes, cotton, tobacco, certain grasses 

 and a long list of other cultivated trees, shrul)s and plants, it is one of Hawaii's 

 worst introduced pests. 



They are ordinary -looking, grayish-brown beetles, a little over a half inch 

 in length, with a broad flat head. They are night feeders, hiding by day under 

 the loose earth about the roots of plants and under boards and rubbish. ^Nlany 

 attempts have been nuule to rid the country of this pest since it first became 

 troublesome about 1890. Perhaps the most successful enemy has been a certain 

 fungus that has now been well distributed to all parts of the group. Like all 

 fungi, it is a plant of low order which grows in threads.-^'' After a certain 

 period of growth some of these threads "fruit," producing small sacks packed 

 full of minute granules known as spores. The spores are very light and small, 

 and are bloAvn about or carried l)y birds and insects. Some fungi are inju- 

 rious, especially such species as grow on tlie mango and the coffee, but the 

 one in question is beneficial, since it grows in the body of the Japanese rose 

 beetle and, if conditions are favorable as to moisture and so on, it will event- 

 ually kill the insect. Dead beetles show the whitish or greenish fungi about 

 the numerous joints of the body and legs. In a few days after death the spores 

 develop and tlie fungus turns greenish and the disease is then readily commu- 

 nicated from the dead infected insects to healthy ones. 



The disease can be easily distributed by simply caj^turing a supply of 

 beetles and placing them in a secure box partly filled with moist earth. The 

 box should be set in a eool, shady jilaee and the insects fed on any of the 

 weeds or plants of which they are fond. "When they die and the greenish mold 

 appears, the dead beetles should be mixed together with dry earth and sand 

 and distributed a])out the garden or under bushes attacked by the beetles. 



Fuller's Rose Beetle. 



Fuller's rose-beetle,-"^" or the "]\Iaui" or "Olinda" beetle, introduced from 

 America, is an oval black snout-beetle about a half inch in length that, by 

 reason of the extensive range of its food plants of native and introduced 

 species, makes it a serious pest. The only parasite so far a known is the 

 larvae of a certain click beetle introduced to feed upon it. Toads have doubt- 



^'' Orciis chab/heus. ^^ Chilocorus (•irciimdatiis. ^~ Coelophora inasnualis. 

 "3 Cryptolmmus montrouzicri. ^^ Coleoptera. ^^ Adoretus tenuimaculatus. ^^ Mycelia. 



^~Ararniffvs fuUeri. 



