50 EBERHARTS OUTLINES OF 



T. It is about 0.18-0.20 inch long and its general color is 

 a rusty black, with more or less white on the wing covers, 

 ari( j * * * on the hinder part of the thorax, near the 

 scutel. * * * It is supposed to be an indigenous North 

 American insect and was first noticed * * * around 

 Philadelphia, from whence it has spread over most of the 

 state where the pea is cultivated. The female deposits her 

 eggs on the outside of the pod. It is a very general re- 

 mark that peas are "stung by the bug" and the impression 

 prevails * * * that the female punctures and de- 

 posits her eggs in the pea in which the larva is to be nour- 



Fig. 54. 



Pea Weevil and Larva. 



ished." The beetles appear about the time the peas blos- 

 som and the yellow eggs are laid on any part whatever of 

 the surface of the pod, being held there by fluid which is 

 rather viscid, and on drying is white and glistening, quot- 

 ing again from Treat: "The newly hatched larva is of a 

 deep yellow color, with a black head, and it makes a direct 

 cut through the pod into the nearest pea. The hole soon 

 filling up in the pod, and leaving but a mere speck, not as 

 large as a pinhole, in the pea. The larva feeds and grows 

 apace, and generally avoids the germ of the future sprout, 

 perhaps because it is distasteful so that most of the buggy 



