FULLER'S ROSE BEETLE.

Aramigus fulleri Horn (Family Otiorhynchidae).

(Fig. 237.)

General Appearance. The adults vary from gray to very dark brown in color and from three eighths to one half an inch in length. The eggs are about one twentieth of an inch long, pale yellow and laid in rows. The larvæ are milky white and without legs. The pupæ are also white.

Life History. The eggs are laid in clusters in secluded places on the trunks of trees or at the base of the trees or plants often close to the ground. The young white grubs are subterranean in their habits, doing great damage to the roots of many plants. The adults when seen during the day are very sluggish. They have no power of flight. Much damage is done to plants by this pest unknown to the farmer, owing to the fact that the larvæ work underground and the adults feed at night.

FIG. 237.-Fuller's rose weevil, Aramigus fulleri Horn. Natural size at left. (After Riley.)

Distribution. Throughout the entire State, particularly harmful in the central and southern parts.

Food Plants. Foliage of citrus trees, roses, oaks, camellias, palms, Canna indica and the roots of strawberries. Young or newly budded citrus trees are often greatly damaged by this pest.

Control. The larvæ, like all subterranean pests, are difficult to control, but thorough cultivation and hoeing close to the plants are great aids. In light sandy soil, carbon bisulfid is efficient. The adults being unable to fly are easily kept from trees by means of a cotton or tanglefoot band around the trunk, but are very troublesome to low plants and bushes where such methods are impracticable. Poison sprays such as asenate of lead must be resorted to in such cases to save the foliage.

THE ROSE SNOUT BEETLE.

Rhynchites bicolor Fab. (Family Rhynchitida).

(Fig. 238.)

General Appearance. A small bright red snout beetle, with head, snout and legs black. The average length of the females is about one inch. The males are noticeably smaller than the females.

Life History. The beetles hibernate over winter in sheltered places and appear early in the spring. The females roll up the edges of the leaves into small pockets like miniature thimbles into which the eggs are laid and the young reared. The larvæ and adults feed upon the foliage, the latter also puncture the fruit of blackberries and raspberries with their snouts or bills.

Distribution-Especially abundant in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and in the Sierra foothills.

Food Plants.-The beetles confine their attacks almost wholly to the wild rose, though they may occasionally work great damage to cultivated roses and to berries. The adults also feed upon oak leaves and grapevines.

Control. As this pest is normally a leaf eater it may be controlled

FIG. 238. The rose snout beetle (Rhynchites bicolor Fab.). The two left individuals are females; the right, a male. All slightly enlarged. (Original.)

by liberal applications of arsenical sprays. These meet all requirements, except where they damage the fruit of berries, but even such attacks could have been prevented by spraying the vines before the berries began to ripen.

DIPTERA (Order).

TRUE FLIES.

This order probably comprises more numbers than any other and is one of vast importance to health as well as to agriculture. Most of the members are injurious, though certain ones, due to their predaceous and parasitic habits in the subjection of other injurious insects are beneficial, but these are of little consequence in consideration of the great numbers of their pestiferous relatives.

The members of this order are particularly characterized by having only two wings, if wings are present at all. The male coccids and a few May flies are the only other insects being thus characterized.

All have complete metamorphosis, the larvæ being legless and headless maggots and the pupa with free limbs or enclosed in a skin. In either case the latter are known as puparia. The mouth parts are for lapping and piercing and sucking.

The life histories and habits of flies vary considerably. Most species lay eggs while a few give birth to living larvæ, and still others bring forth young developed to the puparia stage, the latter being usually parasitic. The maggots feed upon plant tissue, fruits and flesh, and are

adapted either for living upon land or in the water. The puparia may be formed in the home of the larvæ, but they are usually found in the soil. The adults are exceedingly numerous, and, with the exception of the mosquitoes, are diurnal in habits, preferring bright sunshine.

The control of this group is very difficult, due to the great productiveness of the females and the secluded work of the larvæ. A contact spray is usually recommended for sucking insects, but are of little avail against the maggots, while poison baits and sprays are readily lapped up by adult flies and give some aid as control measures. The reduction of the number of maggots is only accomplished by the destruction of the adults.

Natural enemies play an important role in checking the tremendous increase of a great many species. Predaceous insects prey upon the larvæ and adults while internal parasites attack nearly all stages.

The classification of this large order is very complicated, being composed of many suborders, families and subfamilies, so that no attempt will be made to designate any but those which are of economic importance to the agriculturists in California.

THE ALFALFA CRANE-FLY.

Tipula simpler Doane (Family Tipulidæ).
(Figs. 239, 240.)

General Appearance. The adults are long-legged, slender-bodied insects of a light brown color. The females are wingless while the males are winged and somewhat smaller, lighter in color and with longer, frailer legs. The average length of the adult female is about one half of an inch.

the

FIG. 239.-Adult male and female of alfalfa crane-fly, Tipula simplex Doane. (After Carnes and Newcomer.)

Life History. The small, oval. dark gray eggs are deposited as deeply into the soil as the length of the female's abdomen will allow. They are laid throughout the early spring and summer. These soon hatch into light colored maggots, which begin to feed upon the roots of plants. When full grown they are from three fourths to nearly an

inch in length-the color being a very dark brown. The maggots remain in moist or wet places, breathing water through spiracles at the posterior end. The pupae greatly resemble the larvæ in shape and color until nearly time to develop into the adults, when the wings and legs begin to appear. The body segments are provided with sharp spines which project backwards and by which they are able to wriggle to the surface when ready to emerge. The broods overlap so that all stages may be found. The insect probably hibernates in the larval forms and pupate early in the spring, giving rise to the adults. These bring forth young larvæ, which become destructive early in the summer.

FIG. 240. The alfalfa crane-fly. A, egg: B, larva; C,
pupa; D, head of larva (Drawing by Newcomer.)

Distribution. This insect is common in the central and northern parts of the State.

Food Plants.-The larvæ feed entirely upon the roots of plants. Undoubtedly a great variety are attacked. Serious damage has been reported, due to its ravages in alfalfa and clover fields.

Control. The greatest amount of damage is usually done in fields which have long been seeded to alfalfa or clover, where the breeding has not been disturbed. Plowing and thorough cultivation will destroy most of the larvæ, which are either crushed or die for lack of sufficient moisture. The females being wingless are unable to migrate suffi

ciently to cause serious damage in one year.

A cultivated crop once

in two or three years as a rotation with clover or alfalfa is recommended when the destructiveness of the pest warrants strict remedial measures. Natural Enemies.-Carnes and Newcomer report a tachinid fly as parasitic upon the larvæ.

THE HESSIAN FLY.

Mayetiola destructor (Say) (Family Cecidomyiida).

(Cecidomyia destructor Say.)

(Fig. 241.)

General Appearance. This insect when fully developed is a small brown fly about one tenth of an inch in length.

The eggs are about

FIG.

241.-The Hessian fly, Mayetiola destructor (Say). Healthy wheat stock at left and infested stock at right; a, egg; b, larva; c, puparium or "flaxseed"; d, pupa exposed; e, adult female laying eggs; f, female; g, male; h, puparia or "flaxseed" in natural position between leaves and stalk; i, parasite (Merisus destructor). (Slightly enlarged, excepting e, which is smaller than natural.) (After Riley, Burgess and Forbes.)