150 



The cosmopolitan ant, Pheidole megacephaJa, F., is enormously 

 abundant throughout the Hawaiian Islands at low elevations and it is 

 quite probable that it cheeks and greatly limits the increase of several 

 species of fruit-flies. It is quickly attracted to any fresh or decaying 

 ^animal matter, and probably prevents the development of one-third to 

 four-fifths of the larvae present in all fruits in the field. 



Brooks (F. E.). The Grape Curculio. — U.S. Dept. Agric, Washington, 

 D.C., Bull, no 730, 24th December 1918, pp. 1-19, 2 plates. 



Coeliodes inaequalis, Say (grape curculio) is the most destructive 

 insect attacking the grape in many parts of the eastern United States. 

 This weevil is markedly local in its occurrence and appears annually 

 in destructive numbers in some localities, while remaining practically 

 unknown in neighbouring districts. It was first recorded as a pest 

 of grapes in 1853 in Ohio and has been reported from the New England 

 States to Minnesota, and south to Missouri and Florida. There are 

 no records of either the larvae or adults attacking the leaves or fruit 

 of plants other than the grape under natural conditions. 



The adults appear upon grape foliage in the spring and feed for 

 10 to 14 days on the upper epidermis and parenchyma of the leaf 

 before beginning to oviposit within the young fruit. The eggs are 

 deposited singly in a cavity which the female excavates in the pulp 

 through a small hole made in the skin ; as many as 16 may be 

 deposited in a single day, and they hatch in about 6 days, the period 

 of greatest egg-production being from the middle of July to the middle 

 of August. The young larvae begin to feed before they are free from 

 the egg-shell and within a few minutes have burrowed out of sight 

 Avithin the pulp, attacking the seed on the second or third day. The 

 larvae remain in the grapes for from 7-19 days, the average time 

 bemg 10-12 days. They emerge through small holes which they 

 make in the skin, leaving the grapes during the morning hours, especially 

 between the hours of 7 and 9, and pupate in cocoons constructed on the 

 surface of the ground. The average length of the pupal period is 

 18 days, but those that leave the grapes late in August and in 

 September pupate and remain within the cocoon until the following 

 spring, issuing as adults at about the time the hibernating weevils are 

 emerging. Many of these five through the entire season and hibernate 

 again in the autumn, the usual heavy mortality among adults in the 

 spring being probably among those that have survived two winters. 



Among predaceous enemies of the larvae are the ants, Camponolus 

 pennsylvanicus, DeGr., Myrmica punctiventris, Roger, Lasius 

 americanus, Em., Cremastogaster Imeolata, Say, and Solenopsis debilis, 

 Mayr. 



The Hymenopterous parasite, Anaphoidea conotracheli. Gir., a well- 

 known egg-parasite of the plum curculio, Conotrachelus iiefiuphar, 

 Hbst., has been found to destroy about 40 per cent, of the eggs. Adult 

 parasites issue in from 10-13 days after oviposition, thus allowing 

 for the development of 4 or 5 successive generatioiis. The larva of 

 another parasite, Microbracon mellilor, Say, attacks the larva externally 

 and devours it, after which it constructs within the grape a small 

 cocoon from which the adult parasite escapes within a few days. A 

 third Hymenopteron, Stiboscopus brooksi, Ashm., oviposits within 



