Twelfth Keport of the State Entomologist 269^ 



this improved variety, — tlie grafts beginning to bear when about three 

 years old. The trees were kept properly trimmed and the ground clear 

 from underbrush. The land now yields more in value than an equal 

 area of potatoes and at a much less expense. The improved varieties 

 being easily grafted on native stock, makes it easy to transform in a few 

 years comparatively worthless trees to valuable fruit producers. The 

 most serious drawbacks are the underbrush, injury by insects, and thieves. 



Extent of Injury by Chestnut Weevils. 



The amount of injury by these insects varies much both with the season 



and the locality. Mr. R. C. Hewson, Penn Yan, N. Y., estimates the 



annual loss of native nuts in that vicinity at from five to ten per cent of 



the crop. This appears to be rather a conservative estimate, since in 



Massachusetts as high as forty per cent of the chestnuts in certain seasons 



are injured by these weevils. Sometimes in New Jersey fifty per cent of 



the Japanese and Spanish varieties are ruined, and Dr. Smith cites an 



instance in which the crop was almost entirely destroyed at the Parry 



Brothers nursery. The loss in Maryland ranges from ten to twenty-five 



per cent, in Delaware from thirty to forty, and in North Carolina from 



ten to fifty — possibly averaging, about twenty per cent. From five to 



twenty-five per cent of the few native nuts in Michigan are injured by 



the weevils. 



The Genus Balaninus, 



This genus is remarkable among the Curculionidcc or snout beetles for 



the unusually long proboscis or snout, — it being rarely shorter than the 



body, and in the female it is frequently twice the length. The members 



of this genus feed in the larval state on chestnuts, walnuts, hickory 



nuts and hazelnuts — all having thick husks and hence necessitating 



a very long beak for the purpose of perforating to the kernel that the eggs 



may be deposited near a suitable food supply. The extremely long beak 



may well be regarded as a special adaption to the requirements of the 



existence of this genus. It also differs from the other Curculionidce, and 



in fact from all other known Coleoptera, by having the mandibles vertical 



instead of horizontal. The structure of this form is so different from its 



allies that it has been raised to sub-family rank (LeConte-Horn : Rhyti- 



chophora of America, 1876, p. 322). 



Two Species Attacking Chestnuts. 

 There are at least two species that injure chestnuts in this country. The 

 great chestnut weevil, Balaninus proboscideus (Fabr.), formerly known as 

 B. caryatrypes Bohm., is the larger. This form may be separated from the 



