HISTOKY. 11 



of names. The first reference we find to this species is in M. J. 

 Sturm's Catalog Insecten Sammlung, at that date (1826) under the 

 name of Colaspis jlavescens. Under a later catalogue (1843) by the 

 same author it is listed under the name of Fidia lurida Dej. Dejean, 

 in his Catalogue des Coleop teres (1837), names two species, Fidia 

 lurida Dej . and Fidia murina Dej . 



The genus Fidia was fu"st characterized by Baly in 1863, who used 

 the name Fidia suggested earlier by Dejean. Crotch, however, in 

 1873, described this insect under the name of F. murina and Lefevre, 

 in 1885, described it under F. lurida. In 1892, when Dr. George H. 

 Horn revised the Eumolpini of Boreal America, F. murina and F. 

 lurida were found to be synonyms of Fidia viticida as described by 

 Walsh in 1867.« 



Since 1866, when this insect was first reported as occurring in 

 destructive numbers in Kentucky, it has developed into the most 

 serious insect infesting vineyards east of the Rocky Mountains. At 

 that date only the adult form and its injury to the vine by feeding 

 upon the foliage was known. Walsh assumed that the larval habits 

 of the pest were similar to those of the grape flea-beetle (Haltica cha- 

 lyhea 111.), and that it would be found the most destructive in this 

 stage feeding upon the foliage. In the former assumption he was 

 correct, for it is the injury of the larval form which is inimical to 

 infested vines, not upon the leaves, however, as Walsh supposed, but 

 upon the roots, as shown by later investigations. The year following, 

 the insect was reported from St. Louis and Bluff ton. Mo., and in 

 1868 Prof. C. V. Riley, in his first report on injurious and beneficial 

 insects of Missouri, mentions it as 'Hhe worst foe to the grapevine 

 in Missouri." In 1870 specimens were received by Riley from Bun- 

 ker Hill, 111., and in 1872 Mr. S. H. Kridelbaugh reported it present 

 in Iowa in injurious numbers. 



It was not until 1893, however, that some light was thrown upon 

 the earlier stages of the pest. In December of that year Prof. F. M. 

 Webster, then entomologist of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, received larvae from the vicinity of Cleveland, Ohio, where 

 they were said to occur in great numbers about the roots of vines. 

 Later there developed from these larvae the complete form which 

 proved to be the beetle Fidia viticida, hitherto the only stage of the 



a The validity of the technical name of the grape root- worm {Fidia viticida Walsh) 

 might be questioned. The names lurida and murina were used previous to viticida, 

 but as nomina nuda; the specific description was first given in 1867, when Walsh described 

 the insect under the name Fidia viticida. Baly in 1863 characterized the genus and 

 designated lurida as the type of the genus, though the species under that name had 

 not yet been described. The specific name viticida Walsh has the priority, since 

 the valid name murina was first used in 1873 by Crotch, and lurida in 1885 by Lefevre, 

 both writers using the early manuscript name of Dejean. 



