56 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [Jan. 2, 1920. 



Notes on the Apple Root Weevil 



{Leptojjs hopei). 



W. W. FROGGATT. F.L.S.. Government Entomologist. 



The circiimstance that led to my further recent study of this curious weevil 

 was the discovery by Inspector Gallard that a number of apple trees in the 

 Epping district, which Avere being grubbed out by their owner on account 

 of their unhealthy condition, were badly infested by its larvse. Through the 

 Inspector's kind offices I visited the affected orchard, when we were enabled 

 to study the earliest stages of the life history of the beetle. 



French, who first described the habits of this beetle as a serious apple-tree 

 pest in Victoria (" Destructive Insects of Victoria, 1891 "), gave it the popular 

 name of the " apple root borer " — a rather misleading and unsuitable one, 

 insofar as it does not bore into the stem or roots, but its larvse, after working 

 their way down the trunk, eat away the bark and gouge a regular furrow 

 along the outer surface, following it round until all the bark of the main roots 

 and the surface wood are devoured, and the damaged root rots. The only 

 previous record of Lepojis hojjei as a root pest in New South Wales was in 

 the Mount Pleasant orchard at West Maitland many years ago. Mr. Scobie 

 has recently informed me that they disappeared some years ago and are 

 c^uite a thing of the past in that district. 



This beetle, however, with several other weevils, has been found on various 

 occasions doing a considerable amount of damage to the opening buds of 

 vines and fruit trees. In this journal in 1898 the writer published an account 

 of damage caused by the adult beetles in a vineyard near Glenfield, where 

 thousands of them were hand picked and destroyed when feeding at night 

 on the buds just as they were bursting on the vines. The roots of the apple 

 tree examined by us (as can be seen in the illustration) were very badly 

 damaged by the apple-root weevil larvae, but the larvse had left the roots 

 and were resting in a cell in the hard clay several inches av/ay from the root, 

 and over 2 feet beneath the surface of the ground. Our first visit was made 

 on 14th March last. Making further investigations Mr. Gallard says : " In 

 digging for the fresh specimens I am sending, I completely undermined the 

 tree, and found that all the roots deep down beneath it were completely 

 denuded of their bark, and were dead up to within 9 inches of the surface. 

 Above these the main roots from the trunk, and all the adjacent small roots, 

 were perfectly sound and undamaged. The larvte appear to be in various 

 stages of developnient from a c[uite small state to one apparently full fed, 

 but I did not find any showing signs of pupation." 



