1923 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



65 



chafer has been particularly injurious for a number of years. For example, 

 in 1921 it destroyed practically the whole crop in several graperies in that district, 

 besides injuring other crops. The high prices obtained for grapes in 1921 made 

 the growers feel this loss very keenly, and at a meeting held in Pelham Centre 

 on March 15th, they passed a resolution strongly urging the Dominion Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to send an Entomologist to their district to investigate 

 the chafer problem. A petition to the same effect was forwarded to the Deputy 

 Minister of Agriculture by the Pelham Township Council. In response to these 

 requests, the junior writer was sent to Fenwick the latter part of May, and for 

 the next three months or so, devoted his whole time to a study of the rose chafer 

 and its control. The following notes are based on this study and on observations 

 made in previous years. 



Rose chafers feeding on apples. 



Food Plants and Nature of Injury 



The rose chafer feeds on the blossoms, fruit and leaves of a host of plants; 

 in fact, it is almost omnivorous. It destroys the blossoms and newly-set fruit 

 of grapes, and skeletonizes the foliage, although this leaf injury is seldom impor- 

 tant. It eats out holes in apples, peaches and other fruits — we have found as 

 many as twelve beetles clustering on one small apple. It may defoliate sweet 

 cherry and peach trees. It may skeletonize strawberry plants, as it commonly 

 did this past year; and much to the distress of amateur gardeners, it plays havoc 

 with the blossoms of roses, peonies and some other ornamentals. Generally 

 speaking, it shows a preference for the blossoms of its food plant, if these are 

 present. The following list of food plants, in which the plants are presented 

 more or less in the order of their susceptibility, will give some idea of the catholic 

 taste of the chafer. 



Grapes, Roses, Peonies, Sumac, Sweet Cherries, Strawberries, Milkweed, 

 Wild Grape, Apples, Peaches, Raspberries, Blackberries, Virginia Creeper, 

 Corn, Beans, Rhubarb, Ox-eye, Daisy Bracken, Dock, Sorrel, Beets, Cabbages, 

 Peppers, Chestnut, Walnut, Sour Cherries, Plums, Birch, Mountain Ash, Grasses, 

 Foison-Ivy, Smartweed, Mullein, Red and White Clovers. The beetle is also 

 said to attack: Quince, Magnolia, Poppy, Hollyhock, Foxglove, Willow, Alder, 

 Tulip Tree, Sassafras, Sour Gum, Oak, Hawthorn, Dogwood and Elder. 



In the Fenwick infested area no chafers were found on the following culti- 

 vated plants: Currants, Gooseberries, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Onions, Tobacco. 

 Sweet Clover and Peas. 



