PEA AND CLO\'EE WEEVILS. 167 



from which the beetles come out in June ; and to this — 

 though possibly some of the beetles visible in March may 

 have developed early — we must add the presence of the 

 hybernated specimens which have lived in shelter through the 

 winter. 



PuEVENTioN AND Eemedies. — Some little could be done to 

 begin with, in years when attack is prevalent, by destroying 

 the weevils "wholesale." In 1882 Mr. Christy noted they 

 were so plentiful that " at harvest-time the w^eevils were 

 abundant on the young Clover, the platforms of the ' reapers ' 

 being literally covered by them, and they could be swept out 

 of the carts when carrying Peas and Beans by thousands." 

 And in the following year Mr. D. Turvill, writing" of the vast 

 number of these pests on his land near Alton, Hants, men- 

 tioned the Peas were swarming with weevils ; they lay thickly 

 covering the floor of the waggons, and in the barn were 

 creeping away from the Peas and covering everything. Under 

 such circumstances, sweeping them down into pails of any 

 sticky mud which would stifle them, or on to tarred boards, 

 would be a simple way of preventing multitudes from flying 

 to the Clover-fields to lay the eggs which start the autumn 

 brood, or secreting themselves in winter shelters to continue 

 damage to leafage early in the following spring. 



Sometimes they may be found hybernating outside Clover- 

 stacks ; sometimes in the fields down the pipes of stubble. 

 The Piev. J. C. Clutterbuck, of Long Wittenham, Abingdon, 

 who gave much attention to this subject, wrote me, — "We 

 traced the sometimes total loss of Trifolium to this source, as 

 we found the insects in the top joint of the stubble, amongst 

 which we generally drilled the Trifolium incavnatum without 

 ploughing. We lightly skimmed the stubble, and so deprived 

 the weevil of its habitat and refuge ; and we believe we abated 

 the evil." 



After a heavy snowstorm early in January in 1888, great 

 numbers of these Sitoncs beetles were found by Mr. Christy in 

 a torpid state, on the surface of the snow in a field of Barley 

 stubble, where the tips of the stubble were just above the 

 snow. Apparently these had crept out from their shelters 

 during or after the snow and been caught by the sharp frost. 



It appears very doubtful whether top-dressings would have 

 any efi'ect in killing the maggots in the ground, but they 

 might do a great deal towards lessening the amount of 

 damage from their presence. In the experiments tried at 

 Piothamstead in 1889 (see p. 54), relatively to checking 

 Clover stem-sickness, the applications of sulphate of am- 

 monia and sulphate of potash mixed pushed the plants well 



