196 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE PEACH. 



Fig. 205. 



No. 100. — The New York Weevil. 

 Ithycerus noveboracensis (Forster). 

 This is a snout-beetle or curculio, the largest species we 

 have ill this country. It appears in May or June, and injures 

 fruit-trees by eating the buds and gnawing into the twigs at 

 their base, often causing them to break and fall ; it also gnaws 

 off the tender bark early in the season before the buds have 

 expanded, and later eats the leaves ofi' just at their base, and 

 devours the tender shoots. It is from four to six tenths of 

 an inch in length (see c, Fig. 205), of an ash-gray color marked 

 with black ; on each of its wing-cases 

 there are four whitish lines interrupted 

 by black dots, and three smaller ones on 

 the thorax. The scutel, which is at the 

 point of junction of the wing-cases with 

 the thorax, is yellowish. The beetle is 

 said to be more active at night than in 

 the day, and seems to show a preference 

 ' a. for the tender, succulent shoots of the 

 apple, although it makes quite free with 

 those of the peach, pear, plum, and 

 cherrv. Sometimes it occurs in swarms 

 in nurseries, when it seriously injures the 

 young trees. In the East it is seldom 

 present in sufficient numbers to prove 

 injurious, but it is very common in the valley of the Missis- 

 sippi. The larva is found in the twigs and tender branches 

 of the bur-oak, and probably also in those of the pig-nut 



hickory. 



When the female is about to deposit an egg, she makes a 

 longitudinal excavation with her jaws, as shown at a in Fig. 

 205^, eating upwards under the bark, and afterwards turns 

 round and places an egg in the opening. 



The larva (6 in the figure) is a soft, footless grub, of a 

 pale-yellow color, with a tawny head ; it is not known whether 



