118 NUT. 



It is desirable to remove all Nuts that fall before their 

 proper time and hum them, so that the maggot inside may 

 thus be carried away and destroyed before it has bored its 

 way out ; and also, looking at the powers of flight of the 

 weevils, it would be well not to have many Hazel Nut bushes 

 in copses adjacent to Filbert ground. 



But probably with this infestation the best methods of 

 prevention lie in the regular measures of good cultivation. It 

 is stated the Filbert likes a Hazel loam of some depth, which 

 should be dressed every year, as the Filbert requires a con- 

 siderable quantity of manure. Also that " in Kent the Nut 

 grounds are well manured every other year with rags, shoddy, 

 fish, or fur waste, and are always cultivated by hand, and 

 kept scrupulously clean." 



This course of treatment, that is, treatment which involves 

 stirring the surface-soil as well as giving additions wholly 

 foreign to insect nurture, is suited to expose some of the 

 chrysalids and bury others deeper, and is generally useful for 

 insect prevention, but especially as regards the Nut Weevil, 

 which (in instances observed) has been found to be so tender 

 at the time of its transformations as to require eight or nine 

 days to gain its colour and hardness, and also strength enough 

 to force its way up through the ground. Looking at these 

 points, it seems likely that if the chrysalids were buried a 

 little beyond the natural depth many of the weevils from them 

 would not be able to come up at all. 



Nut Leaf- Weevil. Strophosomus coryli, Fab. 



On May 15th, 1889, a large number of beetles were for- 

 warded to me by Mr. A. L. Y. Morley, from Great Brington, 

 Northampton, with the observation that Lord Spencer's 

 forester had just brought them as specimens of insects which 

 were doing considerable damage in that neighbourhood to 

 plantations of young Larch, Scotch Fir, and Corsican Pine. 

 Amongst these the Pine Weevil {Hylohius ahietis) was present, 

 but also there were numbers of a little brownish short-nosed 

 weevil, only about the fifth of an inch in length, and marked 

 with a little black stripe running from the base of the wing- 

 cases half-way along the suture. 



On examination, these small beetles proved to be Stropho- 

 somus coryli, Fab., of which Dr. Taschenberg remarks as 

 follows (see ' Praktische Insektenkunde,' pt. ii. p. 103) : — 

 "This beetle appears in many years in great numbers, not 

 only on Hazels, as might be inferred from its scientific name, 

 but also on Birch, Oak, Beech, Scotch Fir, and Pine, where 



