1140 
Distribution 
Throughout the Southern citrus belt in 
California. 
Food Plants 
All citrus trees, camphor, fig, olive, 
rose, pear, plum, apple, quince, willow, 
oak, grape, acacia, tea plant, wattle, 
sago palm, nightshade, English walnut, 
eucalyptus, passion vine, date palm, Cal- 
ifornia fan palm, goldenrod, lignum- 
vitae, fuschia, box elder, agave, cocoanut 
and pistacia. 
Control 
Spraying is efficacious on deciduous 
fruits with lime-sulphur (1-9), caustic 
soda distillate water mechanical mixture 
or distillate emulsion. 
Natural Enemics 
Various species of the ladybird beetles, 
green and brown lacewings and several 
internal parasites. 
E. O. Essie 
Rose Chafer 
Macrodactylus subspinosus Fabr. 
With the blooming of the grape, an 
awkward, long-legged, light-brown beetle 
about one-third of an inch in length fre- 
quently appears in enormous swarms, at 
first devouring the blossoms, then the 
leaves, reducing them frequently to mere 
skeletons, and later attacking the young 
fruit. By the end of July these unwel- 
come visitors disappear as suddenly as 
they comie. 
Though now distinctively a grape pest, 
it was first known as an enemy of the 
rose, whence its name, “rose-bug,” or rose 
chafer. It attacks also the blossoms of 
all other fruit trees and of many orna- 
mental trees and shrubs, and, in fact, in 
periods of great abundance, stops at 
nothing—garden vegetables, grasses, cer- 
eals, or any green thing. At such times 
plants appear a living mass of sprawling 
beetles clustering on every leaf, blossom, 
or fruit. 
The rose chafer occurs from Canada 
southward to Virginia and Tennessee and 
westward to Colorado, but is particularly 
destructive in the eastern and central 
portions of its range, notably in New 
Jersey, Delaware, and to a Jess extent in 
New England and the Central states. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
It passes its early stages in grass or 
meadow land, especially if sandy, the lar- 
vae feeding on the roots of grasses a few 
inches below the surface of the ground 
like the common white grub, which they 
closely resemble except in size. The eggs 
are laid in the ground in June and July, 
and the larvae become full grown by 
autumn and transform to pupae the fol- 
lowing spring, from two to four weeks 
prior to the emergence of the beetles. 
Remedies 
The rose chafer is a most difficult in- 
sect to control or destroy, and the enorm- 
ous swarms in which it sometimes ap- 
pears make the killing of a few thousands 
or even millions of little practical value. 
Iixperiments conducted by the Bureau 
of Plant Industry during the season of 
1911 indicate that a very thorough applica- 
tion of arsenate of lead when the beetles 
first appear, just before the blossoms 
open, will make a profitable crop possible 
even in areas where the pest appears in 
great numbers. 
References 
United States Department of Agricul. 
ture Farmers’ Bulletin 70. 
Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 97. 
Ross Snour Burerne. See Rose Pests 
under Floriculture. 
“Stink Bugs” 
There are several species varying in 
color and size. Two of these, the green 
stink bug and the bound tree bug, reach 
a half inch in length. They are green 
with a margin of red or yellow. 
They puncture the berries, leaving a 
nauseous odor. 
Hand picking is all that is necessary. 
Reference 
Ohio Experiment Station Bulletin 233. 
Small Steel-Blue Grapevine Flea Beetle 
Haltica carinata Germ. 
Family Chrysomelidae 
General Appearance 
The adult beetles are less than one- 
fourth of an inch long, metallic bluish 
or purplish in color with antennae and 
legs black. The last ventral segment of 
the male has a deep elongated depres- 
sion. 
