318 



NUT. 



NUT. 



Nut Weevil. Ciirculio mmim, Linn.; Bdlaninmnucnm, of 'Curtis' 



Guide.'* 



Nut Weevil, magnified; nat. length 3 — 5 lines; isupa, nat. size ; maggot, 

 nat. size and magnified : bored Filbert. 



The fat whitish maggot found in Filberts and Hazel nuts is 

 the larva of the Nut Weevil. 



Those beetles, or weevils, may be seen about the Nut 

 bushes early in the summer, the females usually creeping 

 along the twigs, the males often on the wing. Whilst the 

 Nuts are still young the female pierces a hole through the soft 

 shell by means of the jaws with which she is furnished at the 

 end of her long snout. In this hole she lays one egg, which 

 hatches in about ten days. The maggot feeds inside the Nut, 

 consuming a large part of the kernel. When full-grown it is 

 of the shape and size figured above, of an ochreous white, 

 with horny chestnut-coloured head, furnished with strong 

 black jaws ; without legs, but supplied with muscles inside the 

 large transverse folds or wrinkles, which enable it to draw 

 itself through the earth. 



When full-fed the maggot eats a hole through the Nut shell, 

 sometimes whilst the Nut is on the bush, sometimes after it has 

 fallen to the ground in the premature ripening which appears 



* See paper on the Nut Weevil, " Curculio nuciiin," by "Euricola" (John 

 Curtis), 'Gardener's Chronicle,' vol. for 18i'2, p. 108. In this paper Curtis gives 

 the synonym of Jlalaninns nucuvi, of Gcrmar, as being tlien the more generally 

 used name. This is now one of the synonyms of JJ. eleplias, of Stephens' 

 ' Manual ' ; and as the true Nut Weevil is very variable in its colouring, and there 

 are many synonyms of different species, I have given the original name at 

 heading, in order to be sure I give the insect referred to by Curtis,— En, 



