NUT AND ACORN WEEVILS. 



female lays its eggs in chestnuts by drilling a hole through 

 the burr. When the nuts fall, the larva; leave to hibernate 

 underground, pupating the next July. The Lesser Chest- 

 nut Weevil, B. algonquinus, is rarely .33 in. long; black, 

 with brownish scales; pronotum with a paler line near 

 each side; elytra with numerous, pale, yellow spots, which 

 sometimes form bands; second antennal joint shorter than 

 the third; beak of female nearly twice as long as the body. 

 It usually lays its eggs in the chestnuts after the burrs are 

 opened and the larvae remain there all winter, unless eaten. 

 B. carycB is the Hickory-nut and Pecan Weevil. The 

 adult is about .3 in. long; brownish, with sparse, yellowish 

 hairs. B. obtusus is the Hazel-nut Weevil. The infested 

 nuts fall early. Most of our other species feed on acorns. 

 B. rectus has a beak which, in the female, is nearly twice 

 the length of the body but in the other acorn-eating species 

 the beak is relatively shorter. B. rectus has "the habit, 

 not known in the other species, of sealing the egg-hole 

 with excrement, thus forming a whitish spot." 



Tachypterus [Anthonomus] quadrigibbus is the Apple 

 Curculio. It is dark red; about .17 in. long; pronotum 

 with three lines of white pubescence; each elytron with 

 two prominent tubercles toward the back. The larvae 

 feed for about three weeks in the flesh of green apples and 

 pupate there. Even more damage is done by the adults 

 which feed on tender shoots or puncture the ripening fruit 

 in order to feed, causing it to become "dimpled and 

 gnarled." Adults hibernate. 



Anthonomus signatus is the Strawberry Weevil. It is 

 not over .13 in. long. The injury is done by the females, 

 which lay their eggs in the strawberry buds and then cut 

 the stems so that the buds fall to the ground. A ntlwnomus 

 grandis, the Cotton-boll Weevil, has cost Texas alone more 

 than $150,000,000. It is a Mexican insect that spread 

 northward throughout practically the whole of the cotton 

 belt, due to the short-sightedness of legislatures in neither 

 appropriating sufficient money nor passing stringent enough 

 laws to control it at the start. 



Ampeloglypter sesostris is pale reddish-brown, about 

 .12 in. long. It lays its eggs in grape canes, giving rise 

 to galls about twice the diameter of the cane and an inch 

 2 6 401 



