APPLE-BLOSSOM WEEVIL. 45 



Eedditch, Worcestershire, was to fasten some pieces of flat 

 light tin at the end of a Hght wooden lath, about four feet in 

 length ; this lath being smoothed towards the lower end, so 

 as to allow of it being comfortably grasped. The pieces of 

 tin were well greased with some adhesive mixture, and taking 

 advantage of the Psyllas flj^ing off on disturbance, this simple 

 implement was waved to and fro amongst them. The result, 

 as shown by measurement of surface and insects caught to 

 the square inch, was the very great number of five thousand 

 in an hour ! Whether it would be so successful in ordinary 

 working hands may be doubtful, still the observation appears 

 worth record, with the note that the operation is said to be 

 most successful in brilliant sunshine. 



Apple-blossom. Weevil. Anthonoums pomorum, Curtis. 



Anthoxomus pomorum. — 1 and 2, Apple bud pierced by weevil ; 3, maggot ; 

 4, pupa; 5, weevil; all magnified, with figures showing natural size. 



This is one of the regular old-standing orchard attacks 

 which appear, more or less, every year, and in some years it 

 is ver}^ injurious. The amount of harm done in some degree 

 depends on the season, because the beetle does not lay after 

 the flower bud has begun to open, so that in a warm sunny 

 season, when the buds form and open quickly, the female 

 beetle, whose laying operations are slow, has them cut short 

 before completion by the blossom buds having ceased to be in 

 a state for laying in. 



The method of life of these weevils is for the female to 

 make a small hole in an unopened flower bud by means of 

 little jaws placed at the extremity of the long curved pro- 

 boscis or snout, with which these "long-nosed weevils" are 

 furnished. She then lays one egg in the hole, and with the 

 help of her proboscis she closes the opening ; she then goes 

 on to another bud, and may continue egg-laying for two or 

 three weeks (according to state of the weather) in Apple or 



