Dorothy J. Jackson '27'A 



Nature of Damage. 



T. Damage by Adult. (Plate XV, figs. 2 and 3.) 



The adult weevils do principal damage to peas and beans when the 

 plants are from •'! to 6 inches high. They feed upon the leaves in a 

 characteristic way. Commencing always at the edge of the leaf they 

 eat U-shaped notches out of it. In the young leaves which are still 

 folded they do the same, thereby forming a notch on each side of the 

 leaf. These notched leaves arc typical of the first appearance of the 

 weevil and this stage of the attack is illustrated in the accompanying 

 figures. If many weevils are present and especially if the growth of 

 the plant is at all checked through cold or drought the young leaves 

 and growing shoots are more or less completely eaten away thereby 

 causing great reduction or complete loss of the crop. Miss Ormerod 

 states many instances of farmers having to plough up their pea crops 

 on this account, and the Board of Agriculture (22) records the complete 

 destruction of pea and bean crops in many places during 1917, through 

 the severe attack of this pest. 



II. Damage by Larvae. (Plate XV, fig. 1.) 



The damage effected by the larvae consists chiefly in attacks on the 

 root nodules of peas and beans. This destruction attains its maximum 

 at the commencement of the flowering season. The nodules in all stages 

 of growth are excavated by the larvae and although new nodular growths 

 often develop these also are destroyed by the larvae. After a severe 

 attack only the hollowed out shrunken skins remain; and the nodules 

 are thus often completely destroyed at a critical stage of the plants' 

 development. 



Description of Adult. (Plate XIV, fig. 2.) 



Black, clothed on the dorsal surface with brownish ochreous or 

 greyish ochreous scales interspersed with flat setae, frequently arranged 

 on the elytra in the form of darker and lighter longitudinal stripes. 

 Under-surface covered with whitish grey scales. Size 3-6 to 5-4 mm. 



Build. Head moderately broad between the eyes which are slightly 

 prominent, projecting beyond the line of the sides of the anterior part 

 of the pronotum. Rostrum with a central furrow which is continued 

 between the eyes, but the area between the eyes traversed by the furrow- 

 is otherwise level. Pronotum broader than long, the sides rounded, the 

 anterior edge very slightly raised so as to form a narrow rim or collar. 

 Elytra long and with parallel sides, not increasing in width behind the 



