16 BULLETIN 891, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to appear in such numbers as to be the cause of anxiety on the part of those 

 having the vineyard in charge. The very sweet, thin skinned, early sorts suffer 

 most severely. On a visit to the vineyard, August 1, 1896, I found Moore's 

 Early, Poughkeepsie, and White Imperial being severely damaged, while Bril- 

 liant was only moderately injured. The clumsy beetles were clinging to the 

 berries, in some cases a dozen on a bunch, greedily devouring the pulp and leav- 

 ing them in an unsightly and utterly ruined condition. They were guilty dur- 

 ing the same month of injury to early peaches and plums. 



Webster and Mally (27) have reported injury by the beetles to 

 tomatoes in southern Ohio, and state that melons are sometimes 

 eaten; corn in the ear is a favorite food, and not infrequently the 

 beetles are sufficiently numerous to injure noticeably both field and 

 sweet corn. They have even been observed injuring young corn 

 plants by gnawing into the stalk, and in one instance young sor- 

 ghum plants were attacked. 



The beetles are also frequently complained of as a nuisance in well- 

 kept lawns and golf greens, because of the little mounds of earth 

 excavated by them as they enter the ground, but they are by no means 

 as troublesome in this respect as are the larvae. 



In 1909 Mr. E. A. Vickery, Bureau of Entomology, observed the 

 beetles at Salisbury, N. C, August 10, feeding on kernels of corn 

 near the tip of the ear, the injury having first been started by the 

 related Euphoria sepulchralis Fab. At Wellington, Kans., Messrs. 

 E. O. G. Kelley and T. H. Parks, Bureau of Entomology, observed 

 beetles feeding on young stalks of corn July 19. They were boring 

 large holes near the base of the stalk between the second and third 

 joints. Mr. Kelley repeated this observation and later, August 10, 

 1911, found them feeding on corn kernels. July 14 of the same 

 year Mr. G. G. Ainslie, Bureau of Entomology, observed the beetles 

 feeding on sweet-corn kernels at Nashville, Tenn. 



At the same locality Mr. W. H. Larrimer, Bureau of Entomology, 

 reported injury to sorghum July 21, 1913. The beetles were ob- 

 served in the " throat " of the plants, evidently having been attracted 

 by the honeydew of the corn leaf-aphis, 8 or by the sweet sap of the 

 sorghum itself. This attack caused the leaves to split at the base, 

 injuring the plants to quite an extent. When the field was revisited 

 a week later the beetles had disappeared, and while the plants were 

 attempting to outgrow the injury, the damaged ones were easily 

 distinguished. 



July 9, 1915, adults were observed at Ocean View, Va., flying over 

 lawns and hedges and flower beds, those captured proving to be 

 largely females. Later in the month they were also observed at 

 Portsmouth, Va. The parasitic sarcophagid flies were observed on 

 hedges, and in all probability thus able to deposit their larvae on 

 the adults of C. nitida, resting on the hedges. 



8 Aphis maid is Fitch. 



