APPLE. 



Garden Chafer; May-bug; Rose Beetle. PhyUopintha horticoUi, 

 Liau. ; Anisoplia horticola, Curtis. 



PHYLLOPEBinA HORTICOLA. 



Beetle, nat. size (walking), magnified (flying); grub, also magnified. 



The attack of the Garden Chafer, so far as is shown by comparison 

 of reports of recent and of long by-gone days, appears to be one of the 

 few crop infestations which are less observable now than formerly. 



In 1844 John Curtis drew attention to these Chafers being " so 

 great a plague " in two of their stages, that it was desirable to give an 

 account of their life-history, and in various papers he gave dates of 

 great appearances.- The earliest noted was in 1814, "in immense 

 numbers," near Swansea. In 1832 Apple and Nectarine trees were 

 very seriously injured ; in 1833 Koses were especially noticed as 

 attacked ; young Apple trees are noticed as being occasionally defoli- 

 ated by them, and at another time (of which I have not the date ; but 

 prior to 1844) the Chafers are noted by Curtis as being " so abundant 

 on the Acacias, near Petersfield, as to consume the foliage, and when 

 the trees were shaken, they fell down like a shower of hail." 



In his ' Farm Insects ' (Edition of 1860), Curtis mentions the 

 beetles as abundant every year, and well known in every part of the 

 kingdom, and to be found in May and June on hedge-rows, &c. ; but 

 that it is in maggot state in which the infestation is most destructive, 

 and " although they are mischievous in gardens, it is in pasture-lands 

 and lawns that they commit the greatest ravages," by consuming the 

 roots. 1889 and 1840 are mentioned as years in which the maggots 

 were especially abundant in autumn in Hants and Gloucestershire, and 

 this great presence of maggots happened also in 1844 in different 

 localities ; but since 1877, the date of commencement of this series 



* See ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' vol. iv, p. 700; Curtis, 'Farm Insects,' pp. 219 — 

 222, and p. 509 ; also Curtis, ' Brit. Ent.,' fol. 526. 



