200 GENUINE SNOUT-BEETLES. 



souri. Prof. Smith writes that it "appears as a small, blackish 

 beetle, with gray pubescence, when the buds are developing, and 

 lays an egg into each, afterwards puncturing the flower-stalk be- 

 low the bud so as to check further development. The larva feeds 

 upon the pollen in the unopened bud which affords sufficient food 

 till it attains its full growth, changing to a beetle in midsummer. 

 The insect attacks a number of other flowers in the same way, 

 nut even confining itself to one natural family, and its injury to 

 strawberries is of a somewhat intermittent character, becoming 

 worse for a number of years, then stopping suddenly for no ap- 

 parent reason. Only staminate or pollen-bearing varieties are at- 

 tacked, and the Sharpless is' perhaps the most seriously infested. 

 By planting chiefly pistillate varieties the staminate rows may be 

 protected by cheap coverings until the buds are ready to open, 

 and even if only a small crop is obtained on the pollenizers, the 

 main crop will be safe without protection. Insecticides have not 

 proved markedly useful in this case." This species is shown in 

 Figs 211 and 212. 



Many other species of the genus Anthonomus are found in 

 the flowers of apple, crab, and thorn, and may be more or less in- 

 jurious; such are A. profundus Lee, A. decipiens Lee, and A. 

 crata&gi Walsh, the latter being often very numerous in the flow- 

 ers of the crab-apples. 



Another species of these destructive snout-beetles has of late 

 become very destructive in our cotton growing states, into which 

 it found its way from Mexico. It is A. grandis, famous or rather 

 infamous on account of its bad habit of eating into the bolls of 

 cotton, which it destroys. 



In Europe many species of this genus attack the flowers of 

 the apple and plum, and are assisted in doing so by other beetles 

 belonging to the genus Rhynchites already mentioned. The 

 writer, in watching the English sparrows in the Eastern States, 

 has frequently wondered why these birds should go to the trou- 

 ble of picking such flowers to pieces, and especially those of the 

 peach. The)' are so intent upon this work that not infrequently 

 the great majority of the flowers are destroyed, and form a white 



