STRAWBERRY CROWN GIRDLER AND OTHER INSECTS. 20/ 



hiding- places. Except when the beetles were moving it was 

 difficult to see them, for though they are black they were too- 

 thoroughly dust covered to be detected readily in the roadway. 



Toward dusk the hill top road was again visited and this time 

 the beetles were more numerous and more interested in their 

 journey, for they had voluntarily quitted shelter, and were out 

 for purposes of their own. Before dark, beetles were seen 

 everywhere along places where they had been sought in vain 

 during the day; fence rails, piles of sun heated stones, tree 

 trunks, sides of sheds, came in for their share of the active 

 beetles as well as doorway and window sill by which the 

 creatures were entering the house. 



These out-of-door observations lead logically enough, it 

 seems, to the conclusion that the house seeking habit of the 

 strawberry crown girdler is merely an incident in the general 

 trend of the movements of this beetle, — perhaps accident would 

 be a more appropriate term from the beetle's standpoint for the 

 house proves a gigantic trap from which the beetles, in spite of 

 restless and persistent climbing, find no means of egress. Like 

 the old fashioned wire fly traps, the house is easier to enter from 

 the foundation than to get out of at the ceiling. The beetles 

 desire a dry shelter and find a building as acceptable as a clump 

 of clay, — until they try to get out. 



The restless wanderings of these beetles in and out of the 

 house is probably a necessary impulse for the spread of the 

 species for, unlike many insects, they are incapable of flight and 

 are doomed to walk the earth if the succeeding generations are 

 to find new feeding grounds. 



It may not be entirely without interest to question whether the 

 presence of these beetles in houses is augmented by lights as is 

 frequently the case with insects most active at night. At North 

 Wayne the room most troubled was the closed front room where 

 no lights were taken during the evening except for a little while 

 to collect the beetles. Yet in one evening over 400 were killed 

 in this room. 



The foregoing discussion has a bearing upon two character- 

 istics commonly accredited this beetle. It is spoken of as 

 " gregarious," and its entrance into houses has been explained 

 as " hibernatinof." 



