96 



insects. Kerosene emulsion applied in a similar manner and in larger 

 quantity will also kill larvae, and the use of tobacco waste in liberal 

 quantities about the roots of the plants is advisable, as it acts both as 

 an insecticide and a fertilizer. 



We may also take advantage of the wingless condition of this beetle 

 by surrounding the trunks of rose bushes and of the different species 

 of ornamental plants attacked by it with cotton bands, such as are in 

 use against canker-worms and similar species. The bands should be 

 applied before the beetles have found their way to the plants or after 

 jarring the beetles from them. 



A CALIFORNIA FLOWER BEETLE INJURIOUS TO ROSES. 



During the past summer a species of flower beetle, known as Hoplia 

 callipyge Lee. and native to California has been observed by Mr. 

 Schwarz to be very destructive to roses at Fresno. Cal.. and vicinity. 

 From that gentleman we have also received specimens of the work of 

 the insect, which show that it is capable of quite serious injury to 

 flowers, but is hardly such a pest as the rose-chafer. Maerodactylus 

 xiyls^innsiis. of the East. It is quite probable since injury by this 

 species of Hoplia to roses has not been given much attention by ento- 

 mologists in available early reports and bulletins, that injury was not 

 noticed until recently but is on the increase, and will probably con- 

 tinue to multiply and spread, since most insects which feed upon wild 

 roses, when they acquire a taste for cultivated ones, prefer the latter. 



This species was recorded in volume V of Insect Life (p. 343) to be 

 doing much damage to the young fruit buds and blossoms of the 

 Muscat grape in vineyards in Fresno County. Cal. The insect was 

 recognized as a yearly visitor, appearing in spring, and up to the 

 time of writing. May 17. 1893, was known only as an enemy of rose 

 leaves, doing much damage to the young buds. The beetles were 

 said to be very numerous, in some vineyards as many as hundreds to a 

 single vine: in one case about three acres were completely stripped of 

 buds. The beetles were also present on rosebushes about dwellings. 



A second correspondent in the same county wrote of similar injury 

 to roses and to grapes at about the same time, a fact which has been 

 briefly mentioned on page 3S6 of volume VII of the same publication. 



This Hoplia is one of twelve described species, all of similar size, 

 resembling each other more or less closely. They arc oblong flattened 

 beetles, with the body more or less completely covered with flat scales. 



II caLlvpygi (figure 25) belongs to a group in which the posterior 

 claws are not cleft, and in which the anterior angles of the thorax are 

 obtuse, and the hairs are long on the thorax, elytra, and pygidium. It 

 is rather dark brown above and incompletely covered with much lighter 

 pHL-ayish brown scales on the elytra. The under surface and pygidium 



