24 Provincial Boaed of Sorticultuee. 1897 



This insect (Maerodactylus subspiiiosus) feeds in the beetle stage upon a great variety of 

 trees and plants, injuring the flowers and foliage. It has been very troublesome at Agassiz. 

 The beetle is a hard, brown insect about half an inch long, and makes its 

 The Rose Beetle, appearance in early summer. According to Dr. Riley's observations, the 

 eggs are deposited usually in the soil of open land or cultivated fields, 

 particularly where the soil is light or sandy. In two or three weeks the eggs hatch, and the 

 larvse feed upon the roots of grass and other plants. They winter in the soil and change to 

 the pupal state there, emerging as the perfect beetle in early summer. 



This is considered one of the most diffifcult insect pests to fight. Spraying with Paris 

 green (Spray No. 9) has given good results in some cases, but hand-picking the insects in the 

 cooler hours of the day, while slow, has proved the surest method of dealing with the pests 

 when not too numerous. Where they are present in large numbers, Dr. Smith reports good 

 results from collecting the beetles by means of funnel or umbrella-shaped collectors. The 

 beetles drop readily when the infested plants are jarred, and the collectors are so made that 

 the insects roll to the centre and into a pail containing kerosene. 



The Potato Blister Beetle {Bpicanta maculata) is reported from Ashcroft and Chilcotin, 



and is found generally in the interior valleys. This pest is very destructive in potato and 



garden patches, generally appearing in May and lasting till the middle of 



Potato Beetle. August. It is a greyish-black beetle; in cool weather it is sluggish and can 



be readily hand-picked or brushed off the plants into some convenient vessel. 



Mr. Fletcher recommends as a remedy one pound of Paris green to 100 gallons of water, or 



one pound to 50 pounds of ashes or other fine powder sprinkled over the leaves. It should be 



mentioned that these beetles in their larval state feed, so far as known, exclusively upon the 



eggs of locusts (grasshoppers), and are thus of great benefit. 



Turnip Flea^or Beetle {Phyllotreta vittata — Fab.). Prevalent in all parts of the Province 



where the crops it feeds upon are grown. It attacks turnips, cabbages, mustard, radish, and 



other plants of the same family; especially injurious to the young plant 



Turnip Beetle, when it first appears above ground, often necessitating a re-sowing of the 



crop. 



It is a small, shiny black beetle, with a yellow, longitudinal stripe on each wing-cover. 



The eggs are deposited on the roots of the plants it feeds upon, and the larvse which hatch 



feed upon the roots, so that it is injurious in both stages of its existence. The beetles pass 



the winter beneath rubbish or clods of earth, and make their appearance early in spring. 



Dr. Fletcher says : " I have found the most successful treatment of this insect to be the 



sowing of perfectly dry land plaster or ashes, with fifty parts of which one part of Paris green 



had been mixed. Other experimenters speak highly of a decoction of waste 



Preventatives, factory tobacco, one pound in two or three gallons of water. This latter 



remedy is useful upon garden cress, where Paris green cannot be used." 



Fresh slaked lime dusted on the young plants is a good preventative of injury, and good 



results have been obtained by using the well-known Bordeaux mixture sprayed on the plants 



to be protected. 



The larvse of this beetle (Pob/phylla decemlineata) has done much damage to nursery 



stock and strawberry plants on the grounds of Mr. J. A. Knight, Mount Tolmie. The beetle 



Western itself is 1 J inches in length by over \ an inch wide. It is shaped like the 



Ten-lined ordinary June bug, is of a tawny brown appearance, with four white stripes 



June Bug. and a short dash from the shoulders on each wing case. The colour of the 



wing-cases is really black, but they are so covered with tawny scales as to give the beetles a 



brown appearance. The larva of this beetle, when full grown and stretched to its full length, 



is 2| inches in length, by | in. wide. The body is curved and white, the head pale chestnut, 



the mandibles black. — [Fletcher.] 



