ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY — ENTOMOLOGY. 261 



•experinienti=! carried out to prove its i)ossibility, is not a common, nor even a 



considerable cause of enteric fever, in time of peace at any rate. On the other 



hand, infection by the excrement of flies bred in infected material explains 



imany conclusions formerly difficult to accept. In a word, it is the bi-eediug 



(ground that constitutes the danger, not the ground where the flies feed." 



The rat flea (Ceratophyllus fasciatus) attacks man, J. C. Gauthier and 



lA. Raybai^d (Coniitl. Rend. .SV>c. Hiol. {raris], 67 ( lOOn). lYo. S7, pp. 859, 860).— 



Experiments are reported which show that this species sucks human blood. 



Thus it may play a role in the transmission of bubonic plague and possibly 



other infectious diseases. 



Snout beetles that injure nuts, F. E. Brooks {West Tirginia Sta. Bui. 

 128, pp. IJ/o-lSo, pis. 6, figs. JO). — This bulletin reports the results of an investi- 

 gation made at French Creek, W. Va., that extended over a period of several 

 years. Special efforts were made to acquire information regarding the egg- 

 laying habits of the different species, their life histories, seasonal abundance, 

 natural enemies, and methods of reducing or preventing loss. 



With the exception of the beechnut all the 27 species of nuts found in West 

 Virginia are attacked by the larvfe of one or more of the 14 different species of 

 snout beetles here considered. "Young walnuts and hickorynuts are fre- 

 quently attacked soon after the blossoms fall from the trees and the infested 

 nuts drop to the ground before they are half grown. Chestnuts, acorns, and 

 some other varieties sustain the greatest injury as they approach maturity. 

 It is not unusual for chestnuts that are kept a week or two after gathering 

 to become from .50 to 7.5 per cent wormy and acorns often suffer to even a 

 greater extent. The infested nuts ai-e rendered unfit for food and in many 

 cases are so badly eaten that they will not germinate when planted." 



The normal life cycle in West Mrginia for all the species here discussed 

 is described as follows : " Beetles issue from the earth in July and August, 

 several weeks after blossoms have disappeared from nut trees, practically all 

 the individuals of one species leaving the ground at near the same time. Egg- 

 laying continues from the time the meat in the nut begins to form until the 

 nut is full-grown. Eggs hatch in fi'om one to two weeks. Larvae feed on the 

 kernel of nuts, some species reaching full growth before or near the time the 

 nuts drop and others maturing much later. Full-grown larvte leave the nuts 

 through large, circular holes which they eat in the shell. The larva, after 

 leaving a nut . . . peneti-ates the .soil for an inch or more where it fashions 

 a small cell . , , in which it passes the winter unchanged. In June, July, 

 and August the larvae change to pupae in which stage they remain for two 

 weeks, more or less, and then transform to adults. They remain in their 

 cells as adults for .several days, or, often, until a warm rain softens the earth, 

 and then emerge and go to the trees." There are some exceptions to this 

 rule, however, as occasionally individuals of at least 2 species, the chestnut 

 weevil and the confused acorn weevil, will change from larvie to adults, either 

 late in the fall or early in the spring, and issue from the ground in May. 

 "Another departure from the normal life cycle is the case of a small percentage 

 of larvte which remain for two years in their cells in the earth and then 

 transform to beetles and issue from the ground in company with those that 

 develop from the previous season's generation of larvae." 



The larger chestnut weevil (Bnlaninus proboscidcus) , the largest of the nut 

 weevils, is one of the most aliundant and destructive species. It attacks chest- 

 nuts and chiufpiapins. laying most of its eggs early in the season so that by 

 the time the rii)e nuts droi) from the trees the full-grown larvae are abundant 

 in the nuts. 



