290 



INJURIOUS AND BENEFICIAL INSECTS OF CALIFORNIA. 



taken at Watsonville. 2 " 7 The writer has obtained specimens from ware- 

 houses in San Francisco. 



Food.— The broad-beau weevil gets its name from its work upon 

 the broad beans (Vicia faba), which are also known as horse, Windsor, 

 tick and English dwarf beans. 



Control. — "While many remedies have been recommended for the 

 control of bean and pea weevils, there is nothing that will compare 

 with fumigation in an air-tight receptacle. Carbon bisulfid, at the rate 

 of 3 pounds to each 1,000 cubic feet of air space for a period of forty- 

 eight hours, is recommended for small lots and hydrocyanic acid gas, 

 at the rate of 2 ounces of cyanide to 100 cubic feet of air space, one 

 hour for large quantities. 



TENEBRIONID.E (Family) 



DARKLING GROUND BEETLES 



In California the darkling ground beetles are numerous and, though 

 especially abundant in the hot and dry desert regions, they are none 

 the less common in the cooler belt along the coast. In contrast to the 

 swift moving predaceons ground beetles (Carabidce), the members of 

 this family are comparatively slow and sluggish, though some of the 

 smaller species are also very active. The body walls are usually very 

 thick and horn-like and the color dull, black, brown or gray. The 

 joints of the antennae are bead-like. The tarsi of the front and 

 middle legs are five-jointed, while those of the hind 

 legs are four-jointed. The head is without a dis- 

 tinct neck and narrower than the thorax. The 

 larva? of some species are cylindrical, smooth and 

 hard, resembling in a marked degree the larvaB of 

 the click-beetles (Elateridce) and are therefore 

 commonly called "false wireworms. " The adults 

 ordinarily live upon partially decomposed or dry 

 vegetable matter, but not infrequently they attack 

 living vegetation and do considerable damage to 

 crops. 



THE DESTRUCTIVE ELEODES 2 " N 



Eleodes omissa borcalis Blaisdell 

 (Fig. 285) 



Description. — The beetle is dull black throughout 

 and about ^ inch long. The general appearance is 

 shown in Fig. 285. 



Life History. — Practically nothing is known 

 concerning the life history of this species. The 

 adults appear in the early summer, often in great 

 numbers, and in a short time disappear almost as 

 quickly as they came. 

 Nature of Work.— The destructiveness of this beetle, like that of 

 its relatives, is great only in newly cleared districts, where, being 



- w BuI. No. 96, pt. V, Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agric., 1912. 

 '"Mo, Bui. Cal. Hort. Com., II, p. 627, 1913. 



Fig. 284. — A false 

 wireworm, the larva 

 of a tenebrionid beetle. 

 Natural size. (Orig- 

 inal) 



