1920 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



At the present time, owing to general appreciation of the principles of control, 

 the strawberry root weevil seems to be decreasing in the Gordon Head district. 

 At Keatings, on the Saanich peninsula, a slight increase is reported, and on the 

 Lower Mainland the situation is very much as it was some years ago with heavy 

 infestations reported from certain points. 



Origin and Life Histouy. 



Recent investigations show that the strawberry root weevil is undoubtedly 

 indigenous and not introduced. Mr. R. C. Treherne"' has found the weevil at 

 various altitudes up to 4,000 ft. in the mountains and on isolated rocky islandf? 

 ,-overal hundred yards from the mainland. 1 myself have found it in spots far 

 lemoved from cultivated areas, and all the evidence tends to show that it is not 

 an introduced insect but primarily a species infesting grasses and various forms 

 of native vegetation. To the list of wild host j)lants of the larva- given by Lovett' 

 1 am able to add two more, Snowberry {Sijniphoricarpus racemosiift) and Oak on 

 both of wiiich I have found the larva^ in Victoria. It is a common pest in gardens 

 and the grubs may ))e found attacking a great variety of plants. 



To the list of cultivated plants attacked l)y the larvae Red Clover must be 

 added. I have found them very numerous in clover sod at Gordon Head, even 

 in the spring, on sod that had been ploughed down the previous fall. Thus in any 

 scheme of cultivation in which strawl^erries have a place it would be obviously 

 unwise to plant them following a crop of clover. A -suitable system of rotation 

 Mill be referred to later. 



OviPOSiTioN. Observations taken during two seasons at Gordon Head 

 showed that the oviposition period extended from the middle of May to the middlt« 

 (if September. The eggs are laid promiscuously around the plants, sometimes 

 against the crown itself, and often buried a quarter to half an inch below the 

 surface. When a crevice in the soil is available this may l)e taken advantage of 

 as a spot in which to deposit the eggs. Formerly it was supposed that all the 

 (?ggs were deposited by those weevils which emerged in the summer, but I have 

 this year conclusive evidence that the over-wintered adults also deposit eo-o-g in 

 large numbers. Commencing on April 1st, collections of over-wintered weevils 

 were made at intervals up to June 13th and kept for observation. That these were 

 true over-wintered individuals there can be no doubt, as the earliest date of the 

 emergence of the summer hrood at Gordon Head is during the last week in May, 

 and this year adults were not found in the soil in teneral condition until June 

 1.3th. Throwing out of consideration those collected in June, we have four lots 

 of over-wintered adults collected on April 1st, ^fay 1st. May 10th and ^lay 31st. 

 The first lot collected commenced to oviposit on ilay 18th (probably later than 

 under natural conditions) and those collected on May 19th commenced to oviposit 

 on ]\Iay 38th. All the lots continued to lay eggs throughout the summer until 

 •A-ugust 30th when oviposition ceased. The highest average number of e^gs per 

 individual was 108, laid by those collected on June 13th, and tha next highest 

 130, laid by those collected on May 19th. The earliest lots collected laid very few 

 eggs, averaging 13 and 38 respectively, this being perhaps due to artificial con- 

 ditions. In the third week in August the weevils began to die rapidlv and bv the 

 (irst week in September nearly all were dead. 



Oviposition by Sumifer Brood. It was intended to make the study of this 

 ])oint more complete this year, but owing to an unfortunate accident to our 



