STRA WBERR F INSECTH 



373 



inserts the smooth, oval, pale yellow egg, about Jq inch in 

 diameter, through this puncture into the interior of the bud, 

 where it lies upon the unopened stamens. She then crawls 

 down the stem of the bud and girdles it so that the bud either 

 falls to the ground at once or hangs a few days attached by a few 

 shreds of tissue. This operation serves to prevent the opening 

 of the bud and thus provides protection to the future grub. 

 Most of the buds fall to the ground within a few days, where 

 they are more liable to remain moist, a condition necessary 

 for the development 

 of the larvae. 



The egg hatches 

 in about a week and 

 the young grub at 

 first feeds almost en- 

 tirely on the pollen, 

 but later may attack 

 other parts of the 

 interior of the bud. 

 When full-grown the 

 grub is about jV i^^^h 

 in length, strongly 

 curved and of a white 



or yellowish color. The larvse become mature in three or four 

 weeks and construct a cell in the frass with which the bud is 

 filled. The pupal stage lasts about a week ; thus completing 

 the whole life-cycle in four or five weeks. The new crop of 

 beetles feed for a short time on the pollen of flowers, especially 

 those of the wild bergamot, and then disappear, going into hiber- 

 nation in midsummer. There is only one generation a year. 



The strawberry weevil originally bred in the buds of red-bud 

 or Judas-tree, the wild blackberry, dewberry and strawberry 

 as well as in those of the yellow flowered cinquefoil, but the 

 cultivated strawberry is now the favorite food-plant. The larva 



Fig. 32; 



The strawberry weevil (x 15). 



