REPORT OF THE STATE EJNTOMOLOGI8T 



4:11 



Anomala marginata (Fabr.). 



The Margined Anomala. 



(Ord. Colboptera: Fam. Scarab jeid^e ) 



Fabricius: Ent. Syst. em., i; pars ii, 1792, p. 164 no. 40 (as Melolontha). 

 Horn; in Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc, xi, 1884, pp. 163-164 (description). 

 Burmeister: Handb. Entomol., iv, i, 1894, p. 266. 

 Munson: in Insect Life, i, 1889, p. 220 (operations in Louisiana). 

 Riley- Howard: in Insect Life, i, 1889, p. 220; in id., v, 1892, p. 45 (identifica- 

 tion and remedy). 



Hoyt: in Insect Life, v, 1892, pp. 43-45; in Count. Gent., lviii, 1893, p. 523 



(abundance and injuries in North Carolina). 

 Lintner: in Count. Gent., lviii, 1893, p. 523 (distribution, injuries, remedies). 



A more destructive species of Anomala than the one noticed in the 

 preceding pages is A. marginata, if we may judge from the prolonged 

 wail of utter hopelessness from a North Carolina correspondent of the 

 Country Gentleman, following a fruitless contest with a horde of the 

 beetles, apparently as irresistible as the rose-bug in New Jersey vine- 

 yards. Listen to his cry : 



And now we have the Anomala marginata. This is the too modest 

 name of a bug, a species of May-beetle, which for " pure cussedness " 

 can give the rose-bug points and come out ahead. It resembles the 

 May-bug, is about half the size and in color is metallic bluish-green. 

 This creature appeared for the first time last summer in this section 

 just as the rose-bug was leaving, and promptly began devouring every- 

 thing that the other hadn't time to eat. While blessed with the 

 appetite of the rose-bug and the elephant combined, it is not so formal 

 as the former, but brings all its luggage along and remains with us 

 until fall. While the rose-bug has slighted us this summer, the A. M. 

 has come again in millions. It began eating its breakfast about six 

 days ago and hasn't knocked off yet to get ready for lunch. Some of 

 my vines are already quite defoliated. I have found them to some 

 extent on blackberry, raspberry, and rose bushes, but its preference is 

 the grapevine. 



I tried hand-picking and shaking them into a vessel with water and 

 kerosene. I had three men working in a plat of thirteen hundred Cynthi- 

 ana vines for an entire day. In this way they destroyed gallons of them. 

 The next morning they were there in unbroken ranks, not a vacancy 

 visible. I then tried spraying with London purple, a pound to one hun- 

 dred and fifty gallons of water. If this treatment has caused them 

 any unpleasantness I have yet to discover the fact. One might as 

 well try to convince the Sabbatarians that there are other people in 

 the world who have rights. 



If any of your readers having vineyards have been troubled by 

 these pests and have succeeded in getting rid of them I would like to 

 learn their methods. Kerosene emulsion might act as a deterrent, but 



