CLOVER " PEAR-SHAPED " WEEVILS. 57 



treatment have been so well given many years ago by M. 

 Herpin that it is hardly possible to state them more clearly, I 

 quote them from the translation in Curtis's 'Farm Insects': — 



" 1st. Cut early and feed off (while green) the Clover crops 

 which are known or supposed to be much infested by the 

 Ajnon. 



" 2nd. Carefully avoid allowing the Clover crops to remain 

 more than two years in succession on the same ground. 



" 3rd. Avoid also allowing the Clover which is much 

 infested by the weevil to ripen and run to seed. 



" 4tli. Alternate and vary the culture." 



The 5th suggestion is that if the Clover is stacked green, 

 and subjected to a sufficiently high fermentation to turn it 

 brown, the maggot contained in it will be destroyed. At the 

 present day the use of the silo would assist in this case. 



Where infested Clover is stacked in the common manner 

 great numbers of weevils escape from it, and very probably 

 something might be done to kill these by throwing quick- 

 lime or gas-lime on them. When they are in such numbers 

 (as has been recorded) that there are scores on one plant, and 

 they are regularly sweeping on from the stack from which 

 they started, something might be done to get rid of these 

 hordes. It is mentioned by John Curtis that the weevils are 

 soft and tender in the chrysalis state, and this I had an 

 opportunity of observing in the specimens sent to myself. 



When properly developed, the Purple-Clover Weevil has a 

 powerful pair of wings, but in those which I examined, which 

 developed in captivity, in a closed box filled with Clover- 

 beads so that there were no favourable circumstances for 

 expansion, most of the wings were abortive, or not properly 

 formed. Where this is brought about in farm practice by the 

 above-mentioned methods of stacking or otherwise, it would 

 be a great check on spread of the pest. 



The measures suggested by Mr. Whitehead, of feeding off 

 infested plants in autumn by folding sheep on the leys and 

 likewise of burning refuse Clover-heads after threshing, could 

 not fail to be of service. 



For paper on Clover Sitona Weevils see " Pea, Bean, and 

 Clover Weevils." 



