\~> 



chophora or Weevils of N. E. America" state that it ranges from 

 New Jersey and the District of Columbia to Louisiana, breeding in 



>mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos 

 occurring in Xew Jersey from July to October. Smith in his " In- 

 of Xew Jersey" (N. J. State Mus. Rept., [90 that it is 



found along the river front near Camden and everywhere along 

 shore in mallow swamps. 



The beetles appear in July and by the last week in August, 

 of the eggs have been laid and only a few adult he found. 



At Westville, X. J., on August 23, only several adults were taken in 

 the flowers while feeding on the f the petals and these were 



evidently stragglers. At this date egg-laying was practically 

 as a dissection of the seed capsules showed a few unhatched 

 many small-sized larvae and a few full-grown ones. 



The tgg punctures consist of irregular circular openings through 

 the seed capsule wall, each being about 1 mm. in diameter. They are 

 readily identified by the blackish color around the edges of the open- 

 ings. The whitish eggs are found resting against the inside wall of 

 the seed capsule, near the puncture or between the developing seeds 

 near the puncture. Some seed capsules contained as many as 

 eighteen punctures, while others had as few as two or three. 



Upon hatching the young larva goes in a developing seed to feed 

 and hollows it out, leaving only the outer shell, which soon decays 

 and turns black. This operation continues until the larva is too large 

 to enter a seed and then the seeds are consumed from the outside. 

 When full grown the larva leaves the seed capsule either by cutting 

 a circular hole in it or by simply crawling out if the capsule has split 

 open as it naturally does. 



It then drops to the ground and works its way beneath the surface 

 to a depth of one half to one inch, where it constructs a little cell in 

 which to pupate. In the laboratory larvae under our observation 

 entered the soil on August 27 and became pupae on September 2. 

 September 17 the pupae turned brownish and on the 18th they had 

 transformed to beetles, showing that sixteen days were required for 

 pupation. After the pupal skin is shed the adults are whitish and 

 without distinct marks. They remain in the cell several days until 

 the colors are fully developed. On September 22 an eral 



days later they emerged from the soil. 



