796 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



plums, and sometimes apples and peaches, with their snouts, making a 

 curved incision, in which a single egg is deposited. Mr. F. C. Hill 

 shows that the curculio makes the crescent-shaped cut after the egg is 

 pushed in, ' so as to undermine the egg, and leave it in a kind of flap 

 formed by the little piece of the flesh of the fruit which she has under- 

 mined. Can her object be to wilt the piece around the egg, and pre- 

 vent the growing fruit from crushing it P — (Practical Entomologist, Vol. 

 ii, p. 115.) The grub hatched therefrom is a little footless, fleshy white 

 grub, with a distinct round light-brown head. The imitation set up by 

 these lavte causes the fruit to drop before it is of full size, with the 

 lava still within. Now full fed, it burrows directly into the ground and 

 transforms during the last of the summer. In three weeks it becomes 

 a beetle. It also attacks other garden-fruits, such as the cherry, peach, 

 and quince. 



Remedy.— The. best remedy is jarring the trees, and catching the larvsd 

 in sheets and burning them. Dr. Hall's "curculio catcher" is an excel- 

 lent invention for destroying these insects ; it consists of a large inverted 

 white umbrella, fixed upon a large wheelbarrow, split in front to receive 

 the trunk of the tree, against which it is driven with force sufficient to 

 jar the curculios from the tree into the umbrella. 



INSECTS INJI3EING THE STRAWBERRY. 



The June Beetle, Phxillophaga fusca (Frohl.)- (See Fig. 10, p. 720.)— Eatiug the 

 roots; the large, tleshy white grub of the common May or June beetle. 



The following account is taken from my third annual report as State 

 Entomologist of Massachusetts : 



" With the increasing attention paid to the culture of the strawberry, 

 it has been found that several insects not before suspected to be inclined 

 to feed on this plant, now habitually frequent it. Of these perhaps the 

 most injurious is the strawberry saw-fly, which in this State, but more 

 especially the W^estern States, as in Illinois, does in some cases the 

 most grievous damage. Then a few moths which have been known to 

 feed on fruit-trees, the currant, etc., have transferred their affections to 

 the strawberry ; such are the apple-leaf-roller or Tortrix, the saffron 

 measuring-moth (Angerona crocataria), and several other caterpillars 

 found in the Western States, and described in the entomological reports 

 of Messrs. Walsh and Riley, and also in ' Harris's Treatise on the Inju- 

 rious Insects' of this State, and the reporter's 'Guide to the Study of 

 Insects.' 



" Next, however, in importance to the strawberry saw-fly {Emphytus 

 maculatus), is one of the most common and familiar of all these insects 

 which everywhere force their attention upon us. This is the common 

 May beetle, June beetle or ' dor bug,' the American representative in its 

 abundance and injurious qualities of the European cockchafer. 



"Dr. Harris has given a brief sketch of its habits and transformations 

 in his Treatise, and referred to the injury the grub, sometimes called 

 ' white-worm,' does to the roots of grass, remarking that ' in many 

 places the turf may be turned up like a carpet in consequence of the 

 destruction of the roots.' He, however, does not say that it attacks 

 the strawberry-roots, which it has for several years been known to do in 

 gardens about Salem. My attention was especially called to its ravages 

 by Mr. D. M. Balch, of Salem, who has lost many strawberry-plants by 

 the white grub. It seemed evident that they were Introduced in the 

 manure placed around the roots, as during July and late in summer a 



