I I 'I El H'TKRA. 



357 



collaris. 

 ill figure shi • 

 natural size. (< iriginal.) 



three or four seeds before it is full-fed, when it emerges fro 

 pod and drops to the ground in which it pup 



Status. A local pest which may at times do considerable 

 damage. Said to occur more commonly on areas ol black cotton 



Con I n'l. ''. 



\l ( IDES COLLARIS. Pas< . 

 . . . collaris, Pascoe, A.M.N.H. (5), XX, 358. 

 Alcides collaris, Lefroy, Ind. Ins. Life, i>. 



Distribution. Coimbatore ;Bellary. 

 Lifehistory. The female weevil 

 gnaws a hole in the stem of the food- 

 plant, deposits an egg and carefully 

 ■ - it o\ ei with fibres ol the stem. 

 I he grub on hatching bores into the 

 stem but does not seem to tunnel 

 far ; a swelling or gall is formed near 

 the point of entrj and in this the grub lives until mature, when 

 I be a legless dirtv-white lar\a usually found inside the 

 gall in a doubled-up posture. The grub when full-grown prepares 

 a thin tough brownish cocoon from which the weevil emerges 

 after about eight days, waiting another three days or so before 

 its integuments are sufficientlj h ir it to emerge into the 



open air. The total life-cycle, from egg to beetle, is about 35 days. 

 Foodplants. -Green-gram (Phaseolus mungo) and other pulses. 

 Said by Lefroj to occur in sweet-potato fields but not found on 

 that plant in Southern India. 



St, tins. A minor pest. When laid in young plants 



they may be killed. In older plants the locality of the gall causes 

 a point of weakness which may cause the plant to break off it 

 strong winds occur. Usuallj one "i two grubs occur in one plant 

 but sometimes si\; or eight ma\ be found. 



1 ontrol. Collection of the beetles by hand. 

 Natural Enemies. — A small blackish Braconid. 



\I I [DES 1;' B( >. Fb. 



mall figure 



