THE HAWTHORN BLOSSOM WEEVIL (ANTHONOMUS 
NEBULOSUS LEC.)* 
WALTER H. WELLHOUSE. 
One of the most interesting and injurious of the insects 
found on the hawthorns is this member of a very destructive 
genus of blossom weevils. Its mode of life resembles in a 
general way that of the Mexican cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus 
grandis, and is almost identical with that of the European apple 
blossom weevil, A. pomorum (see Theobald, 1909, p. 104-110). 
The original description of A. nebulosus by Dr. Leconte 
may be found in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical 
Society 15:197, 1876, and a more complete description is given 
by Dietz in the Transactions of the American Entomological 
Society, 18:203, 1891. In the present account it is sufficient 
to say that A. nebulosus is a brown or grayish -oval beetle, 
3.75-4.25 mm. long, generally with a whitish V-shaped mark 
on the fore ‘part of the elytra, with ‘a long slender curved beak, 
and the front femur bearing two teeth on its apical portion, 
one a large and the other a small tooth. 
It has been found in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, 
Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, so it seems probable 
that it is present wherever its hosts are found East of the 
Rocky Mountains. Although Dietz considers this species to 
be more characteristic of the European fauna than of our own, 
no record can be found of its occurrence in Europe or elsewhere 
outside of our country. 
Its hosts include a number of the larger flowered species of 
hawthorns, such as Crataegus punctata, C. brainerdt, C. pruinosa 
and C. mollis. The smaller flowered species such as C. oxya- 
cantha are not selected by the beetles for oviposition, probably 
because there is not space enough for the full development: of 
the larva within the bud. 
The injury caused by the hawthorn blossom weevil 1s most 
apparent while the trees are in full bloom. At that time 
infested blossoms are brown and remain closed. On _ badly 
infested trees fully 50 per cent of the blossoms may be in that 
condition and the trees present a scorched appearance. As 
* Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, Ne Y: 
141 
