PUNCTURED CLOVER-LEAF WEEVIL: LIFE-HISTORY. 251 



their eggs the following spring. The young larvi^ are seen as early as 

 April feeding upon the clover, but it is not before the latter part of 

 May and in June that they have attained a sufficient size to render 

 them very injurious and tlieir depredations noticeable. At lirst, they 

 feed among the folded young leaves or attached to the under side of a 

 leaf ; later they fasten to its edge, into which they eat irregular 

 patches. The older larvjB are difficult to observe while feeding, as they 

 are quite timid, and drop to the ground when approached. The feed- 

 ing is done during the night, the day being passed in concealment 

 among the roots and old stalks, or other shelter found upon the sur- 

 face of the ground- After they have, with their increase of size, un- 

 dergone three meltings, they spin up in their cocoons, placed usually 

 a little beneath the surface of the ground. The larva remains un- 

 changed within the cocoon for a few days, when it transforms to a 

 pupa. About three weeks later, somewhere about the first of July, 

 the beetle emerges. 



From observations made at the Department of Agriculture at Wash- 

 ington, upon the insect, in confinement, during the autumn, the several 

 periods of its difierent stages were found to average as follows ; The 

 egg stage, ten and a half days ; first larval stage, nine days ; second 

 larval stage, eight and one-half days; third larval stage, nine days; 

 fourth larval stage (from third molting to spinning of cocoon), twenty- 

 five days; larva unchanged in cocoon, nine days; pupal state, thirty 

 days. The entire time from the egg to the perfect insect, was one hun- 

 dred and one days, or about three and one-third months. 



During the summer, with its higher temperature, the development 

 is doubtless considerably more rapid, as beetles were observed to 

 emerge during the last days of June, from cocoons which had been 

 spun about ten days previous. 



Possibly not Lately Imported 



Very lately, it has been discovered by Dr. Le Conte, that a beetle 

 which had been given to him by Dr. Melsheimer, twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago, and which he had described in 1876 as Phytonomus opimus, 

 is referable to Ph. punctatus, it being a variety in which the wing- 

 covers are almost entirely gray — identical with a similar variety which 

 is also associated with the typical form in Europe. A second one hud 

 also many years ago been received by Dr. Le Conte, from Canada. We 

 give the description of Dr. Le Conte : — 



Robust, black, densely finely punctured, and covered with gray scales, having 

 a metallic lustre, sparsely and indistinctly pubescent. Beak one-half longer than 

 the head, stout, curved, antennal grooves deep, suddenly flexed downward ; there 

 is a small oblique groove each side near the tip, a short nasal furrow, and another 

 between the eyes which are transverse. The funiculus of the anteuuaj has the 



