140 



APPLIED ENTOMOLOGY 



its winter quarters earlier than the last named insect and feeds for a time on the 

 opening buds and leaves, gouging holes in tlie blossoms (Fig. 1346) and thus caus- 

 ing them to drop off. Feeding holes and egg punctures in the young plums 

 (Fig. 134c) are holes into the flesh in some of which the eggs are placed, but many- 

 more holes are made than eggs deposited. The grubs work their way to and into 

 the stone or pit and feed on the flesh (seed) within until full grown. Each then 

 gnaws a hole through the stone, after which it pupates inside the stone, the adult 

 appearing in late August and September. There appears to be but one insect in 

 a fruit. 



a b c 



Fig. 1.34. — Plum Gouger (Coccotorus scutellaris l,ec.): a, adult beetle about three 

 times natural size; b, plum blossoms attacked at their bases by the beetle; c, young plums 

 punctured by the beetle. {Modified from Minn. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 66.) 



Plums attacked by the Plum Gouger do not drop, but mature on the tree, but 

 such plums are worthless for market because of the injured spots and because of 

 the deformed fruit produced. 



Control. — Picking off the injured plums before the beetles emerge in the fall 

 has been recommended as a method of control for this insect, and jarring in spring 

 has also been advised, though the beetles do not drop as freely as in the case of the 

 Plum Curcuho. It is possible that spraying with arsenate of lead as for the 

 Curculio, making the first application as soon as the buds are open enough to 

 provide any surface for the poison to adhere to, may prove of some value. 



The Cotton Boll Weevil {Anthonomus grandis Boh.), — This is at the 

 present time the most serious insect pest of cotton which we have. 

 Recent estimates place the destruction by the boll weevil at about 400,000 

 bales per year, which at average prices for the cotton not thus destroyed 

 would be many millions of dollars. Diversification of crops has come 

 into practice, however, where the cotton crop has suffered, so that in a 

 number of the affected States the total value of all crops after the appear- 

 ance of the weevil, has been greater than before. In some cases then, 

 the loss to cotton has been more than made up by turning to other crops, 

 but the reduction in the amount of cotton needed for use in the world is 

 important. 



The cotton boll weevil is a native of tropical America, whence it 

 spread northward through Mexico, and about 1892 entered Texas. Since 

 that time it has extended its area of infestation, reaching the Atlantic 



