INSECTS AFFECTING THE BEAN AND PEA. 



INJURING THE SEED. 



The Bean Weevil. 



Bruchus obsoktus. 



One often finds beans with numbers of excavations 

 in them, like those shown at Fig. 98, b. Such beans 

 are affected by the Bean Weevil — an insect that is 

 widely distributed over the United States, and often 

 does very serious damage. 



The adult weevil is represented natural size in the 

 upper middle portion of Fig. 98, and enlarged at a 

 of the same figure. It is a 

 small, brownish insect that 

 very much resembles the 

 nearly related Pea Weevil, 

 to which it is also similar in 

 life-history and habits. The 

 female beetle deposits eggs 

 on the growing bean pods, 

 and the larvae, on hatching, gnaw through the pod 

 to the young beans within. They enter these, feed- 

 ing upon their substance, and remaining in them all 

 summer, most of them pupating before autumn. A 

 portion of them become adult beetles the same sea- 

 son, while others do not complete their transforma- 

 tions until the following spring. 



Fig. 98. Bean Weevil : a, beetle, 

 magnified; &, infested bean. 



