Common beetle, and its ravages are more to be feared in the sontliern 

 provinces, where its destruction is frequently great. The perfect 

 insects can only be got rid of by watching upon what trees they 

 take their rest for the night ; these trees Tuust be stoutly shaken ear- 

 ly in the morning before the dew dries, at which time the msecls: 

 are too weak to fly much ; they fall to the ground in showers, quite 

 motionless, and by having here and there a hole ready in the turf, 

 and by sweeping them in with a rake or a shovel, a little straw and 

 shavings heaped over them and set on fire destroys the pest effec- 

 tually. The larvffi must be destroyed by the hoeing in May ; when 

 they may be gathered by thousands, as they, at that time, work their 

 way up close to the surface, and are easily turned out. They may be 

 heaped and burned, or given as pasture to poultry, fowls and turkies 

 being especiaily fond of them. 



^ome have proposed as a remedy against the beetle and its grub 

 sprinklings of tallow, ashes, lime, lettuce seed &c. but all these are 

 inferior or ineffectual compared with the means just laid down. 



2, The Crifptoccphalus vitis. 



Is known under a great variety of common names, Clerk-beetle for 

 instance, from the traces like letters which it makes on ihe leaves 

 which it attacks. 



This scourge of the vineyards is the Cryptocephalus vitis of Ento- 

 mologists. It is three lines and a half in length ; the antennae black, 

 and yellow at the base ; the head, corslet, belly and feet are black 

 and slightly velvetish ; the wing-cases are reddish-chesnut, rufous and 

 downy. 



It lives on the leaves and tender shoots; it eats the foot-stalk of 

 the bunch, just as the blossom opens ; it pierces the berry when ripe, 

 to deposit its eggs, which give birth to myriads of larvae, and cause 

 a rottinfT of the fruit which cuts off the crop sometimes at the very 

 moment of gathering. The larva winters in the ground, mines and 

 countermines, penetrating among the roots, which it gnaws some- 

 times to the utter destruction of the plant. About the first of March 

 the larva begins its transformation and shortly after the insects come 

 out and couple in May. 



There is no really effective means of patting an end to the ravages 

 of this insect ; the peculiar meteorological changes of the air have 

 sometimes caused them to disappear for years. The only human re- 

 source against them is, the ploughing and tillage just before winter, 

 which exposes the larvee, when they may be raked out and destroyed : 

 or the matching and killing of the perfect insef^f . 



