880 CLOVER LEAF BEETLE. 



iiftor the fully developed beetles begin to iippear. They arc r,een 

 to emerge from the hollowed stems ironi August to O(!tobero 

 There is only one brood a year. Like many of our noxious 

 beetles, the imago hibernates and waits for the vigorous plants 

 of genial June before dropping her precious burden of eggs. 



If this pest promises to do any serious harm we have only to 

 cut the clover early in July, when we shall save the crop, and 

 probably destroy the insects. This would give chance for a sec- 

 ond crop of hay or fine pasture or crop of seed from the same 

 plants. It is a weU'ome fact that Prof Comstock fonnd two 

 parasites working on these beetles, in such abundance that we 

 nnderstand why the latter are no more numerous and destructive. 

 One a f'halcid and the other an Ichnenmon fly. 



Pliytoiioiinis piiiietatiis, Fabr., Clover Leaf Beetle. 



Order Coleopiera. Famihj Curculionida'. 



Le Cento, Rhym'oi)liora. p. 1'24, 1H,").'5. 



Riley, Am. Naturalist, Vol. XV., p. 912, Nov., 1881, 111. 



Riley, Rep. Conim. Ag. 1HS1-S2, p. 171, 111. 



Kilnian, loth Rep. Ont. En. Soe., 1884, p. 33. 

 This, like many of our most destructive insects, is an im- 

 ported species. It is a common insect in Germany, and has 

 probably been in tliis country for years, as Dr. LeConte received 

 it from Canada in 1853, when he described it as Pliy. opimus. 

 As it does not exist in collections of American Calcoptcrists, it 

 is possible that the insect described by Dr. LeContc by mistake 

 Avas reported as Canadian, it really being itself foreign. In 1881 

 a serious invasion of AVestern New York, Yates county, was ex- 

 perienced, when Dr. liiley, of the Agricultural Department, in- 

 vestigated and gave a detailed description of the species, in- 

 cluding its work and habits. It is wortliy of renuirk that Phy- 

 tonomus uigrirostris, also imported, exists in the United States, 

 and doubtless works as a larva on the clover, as it is known to 

 do in Europe. I have taken this species in considerable num- 

 bers along on our Western Michigan lake shore. 



