PUNCTURED CLOVEU-LEAF WEEVIL: ITS FIRST NOTICE. 249 



species is included, but no citation is given. Dr. Lc Conte, whom I ad- 

 dressed for information, informs me that having gone nearly over the 

 bibliography of the species, he finds no reference to itsjiabits, except 

 tliat it occurs abundantly in dry, sandy places. The insect, therefore, 

 furnishes another illustration of a change in habits, unfortunate to us, 

 which has frequently been found to attend the introduction of Euro- 

 pean insects into our country, whereby species, harmless in their na- 

 tive home, become injurious here, or if injurious there, are much 

 more destructive when brought hither, freed from their former enemies, 

 and with new and more favorable surroundings. 



Its First Notice. 



In the American Naturalist for Xovember, 1881, Professor Riley has 

 given an account of the operations of this insect in Yates county. It 

 was first noticed in the latter part of April, in small patches in a clover 

 field. By the end of July, the entire field had become badly infested, 

 and on one portion of about two acres scarcely a whole leaf re- 

 mained. Other fields in the vicinity were also attacked. The beetles 

 were seldom seen, as they fell from the leaves as they were ap- 

 proached, after the habit of many of the Curcuh'onidce, and their 

 color hardly permitted them to be recognized when on the ground. 

 When not feeding, they hid just beneath the surface of the ground. 

 During August and September, numerous eggs were laid by the beetles, 

 some of them placed externally upon the plants, but the larger propor- 

 tion were thrust into the old and hollow stems. A few of the larva3 

 which hatched from the eggs upon the plants, were nearly full-grown 

 early in October, while those placed within the stalks, seemed, at that 

 time, to be prei:)aring for hibernation. 



Accompanying the above statement of the habits of the insect is the 

 following brief description of the egg and of the larva : — 



The egg is elongate-oval, about twice as long as wide, pale yellow, and smooth 

 wlien first laid, but becoming greenish-yellow, and roughened with hexagonal 

 depressions before hatching. The average length is 1mm., and in most cases the 

 larva has hatched in about one week from the time the egg was laid. The young 

 larva is pale, with a dark head, but subsequently becomes greenish with a dis- 

 tinct whitish medio-dorsal line relieved by darker shades each side. The body is 

 deeply wrinkled with prominent substigmatal and ventral swellings, the latter so 

 well developed and so extensile that they perform the functions of prolegs giv 

 iiig the larva its strong resemblance to those of the TenthredinincB. and enabling 

 it to easily crawl or clasp the edge of a leaf. When at rest it clings sideways and 

 in a curved position to the leaf, usually on the underside, grasping the leaf hairs 

 between the ventral swellings but especially in the transverse fold of the anus, 

 by which it can hold and swing the whole body about as Syrphid larvae are known 

 to do. The'Kurface of the body is sparsely besot with short stiff hairs, varying in 

 number at different stages of growth. The largest specimen, evidently about full- 

 grown, has up to this writing (October 3d), experienced three molts. 



