the latter part of June last, public attention was called to this subject by some paragraphs 

 which appeared in the newspapers. The depredations of the insect were first observed in 

 Staten Island, New York, causing grave apprehensions among the strawberry growers 

 there ; it appeared about the same time in some parts of Michigan. The Entomological 

 Bureau of the Department of Agriculture in Washington promptly took steps to investi- 

 gate the subject, and the Chief of the Bureau, Prof. C. V. Riley, proceeded in person to 

 . enquire into the character and extend of the injury, with the view of suggesting measures 

 for its abatement. The results of this work have not yet reached us, beyond some brief 

 notices which appeared in the press, in which the nature of the injury was stated and the 

 name of the insect given. This new pest was found to be a small curculio which has 

 been known to Entomologists in this country for more than fifty years under the name of 

 Anthonomus rauscidus. It is a small snout beetle which measures, including the beak or 

 snout, only one-tenth of an inch. The body is of a dull reddish colour, punctured, and 

 dotted and spotted with white ; different specimens vary much in their general hue, some 

 being found very dark, occasionally almost black. Heretofore it has been met with only 

 in the collections of Entomologists who have found it to be very generally distributed 

 throughout the Middle, Southern and Western States, and also in Canada, but no where 

 in any particular abundance, and no one had thus far suspected it to be guilty of any 

 injurious propensities ; indeed little or nothing has been known of its habits or history. 

 A few days after its appearance in this new role — as a strawberry pest — was announced 

 in the United States, I received a package from Mr. J. C. Morgan, an energetic straw- 

 berry grower in Barrie, Ontario, intimating that a destructive insect which had never 

 been noticed before was seriously injuring some of the strawberry beds in that neighbour- 

 hood, an insect which seemed to have a special liking for that variety of strawberry known 

 as the Sharpless. When speaking of this pest Mr. Morgan says, " it climbs up the flower 

 stalk, selects one flower and deliberately and quickly cuts it off; as soon as the flower falls 

 or hangs over by a small thread, the insect crawls down, runs up the next stalk and com- 

 mences again. This performance is varied by puncturing the open blossom in several 

 places, which said blossom will also come to grief. It is found in immense numbers on 

 the Sharpless, slightly on the Wilson, and on no other berry as yet." On examination 

 this was determined to be the same species as that which had occurred on Staten Island 

 and in Michigan. ,It is remarkable that this insect, never met with before in any great 

 nu.nbers, should have occurred in such abundance at points so distant from each other as 

 Staten Island, X. Y., Michigan, and Barrie, Ontario, all about the same time, and not be 

 reported as occurring at intermediate points. In the absence of further knowledge of the 

 life history of this insect, we can only suggest as a remedy the use of Paris green and 

 water in the proportion of a teaspoonful of the poison to two gallons of water, which, if 

 applied to the vines with a syringe when the beetles are troublesome, would probably 

 destroy many of them. 



Further complaints reached us during the early summer months of injury done to 

 the biossoms of the grape by the rose beetle Macrodactylus subspinosucs. I can only 

 repeat what has been already several times stated, that this pest may be much lessened 

 if not entirely got rid of by jarring the vines early in the morning while the beetles are 

 in a semi-torpid state, and collecting them on sheets and destroying them. 



The pea crop has for the past year or two been unusually free from the pea-bug 

 Bruchus pisi. Now that the life history of this insect is so well known, farmers are 

 more cartful in selecting the seed, while seed dealers by special treatment are enabled to 

 destroy tie insects in the peas before offering them for sale. The gratifying immunity 

 from this pest, and the large saving thereby effected, is doubtless to be attributed mainly 

 to greater care in these particulars. 



In tht address presented to you in 1880, I offered some remarks on the relations 

 existing beiween birds and insects, and expressed the opinion that while the soft billed 

 insectivorous birds are exceedingly useful, birds in general are not of such great use 

 in subduing injurious insects as is commonly supposed, and that destructive insects are 

 controlled tc a far greater extent by their insect enemies and by the diseases to which 

 they are subect. Experience since gained has confirmed this opinion. During the period 

 which has elipsed much discussion has taken place regarding the English sparrow, which 



