OTIORHYNXHUS LIGNEUS IN A DWELLING-HOUSE. 5 1 



An egg having been placed in position, tlie pair, if not meanwhile 

 disturbed, would again unite in copula, after which another cavity would 

 be made and another egg dejJosited, as before. Query: are repeated 

 coitions necessary to the fertilization of the eggs, and do they require to 

 be separately fertilized ? 



Another note made by me ]v\y 23, 1868, records the same beetle in 

 abundance at Schoharie, N. Y. ; on the branches of some young pines 

 — the sexes in coitu. 



Otiorhvnchus lkjneus infesting a Dwelling-house. 



This curculionid beetle was received from Dr. C. M. Coe, of Lycom- 

 ing, Oswego county, N. Y., in June, 1884, for identification, with the 

 statement that upon opening his house in the month of May, after it 

 had been unoccupied for four years, it was found to be overrun with 

 this insect. 



Upon communicating to Dr. Coe the name of the beetle, and e.x- 

 pressing my inability to account for its infesting his house in such num- 

 bers as stated, since nearly all of its allied species are vegetable feeders, 

 uid asking for additional information of its occurrence, he kindly sent 

 me the following items : 



The beetles were first noticed upon opening the house in the month 

 of April, when they v.-ere found in large numbers in every part of the 

 house, both dead and living. The living ones continued to abound 

 without apparent diminution in number until about the first of June, 

 since which time they have been steadily disappearing. No measures 

 were taken for destroying them beyond a daily sweeping of the 

 rooms and burning such as were collected. At first, as many as two 

 quarts, it was thought, could be gathered at a sweeping. At the date 

 of the letter written (July 10th) not one was seen where previously a 

 hundred had been observed. Nothing had been left in the house at the 

 time of its closing, upon which, so far as known, the beetles could have 

 bred or fed, if attracted thither from out of doors. 



As the larv?e of these species of OtiorhyncJuis so far as known live 

 upon plants, and for the most part upon their roots, we have no explana- 

 tion to offer for the remarkable abundance of this species in the in- 

 stance above mentioned. Otiorhynchus sitlcatits (Fabr.), a species intro- 

 duced from Europe, has long been known to be injurious to many of the 

 garden products in both its larval and perfect stages. As a larva, it is 

 often quite destructive, in Europe, to the leaves of strawberries, but has 

 not yet been known to attack them in the ;;United States. Mr. S. Hen- 

 shaw reports this species as injurious to bulbs and house-plants. In 

 Europe it injures leaves and roots of grapevines {Ent. Month. Mag., 

 xii, 2>2>)- 



