153 Psyche [Oet.-Dec. 



NOTES OX ORCHESTES RUFIPES LEG., IN NEW JERSEY. 



By Hakry B. Weiss and Ealph B. Lott, 



New Brunswick, N. J. 



According to Blatchley and Lengi this weevil is known to occur 

 in New York, Termont, Massachusetts, Newfoundland and Quehec. 

 At Batavia, N. Y., according to H. H. Knight, it was abundant 

 on' the shining willow Salix lucida, the adults feeding on the leaves, 

 July 1 to 15, the larva=^ mining the leaves in August and Septem- 

 ber; other species of willow in the same locality were not infested. 

 Gibson- states that in Ontario an outbreak of rufipes occurred 

 locally on willow toward the end of May and during the first half 

 of June at the Experimental Farm; beetles were first noticed on 

 the laurel-leaved willow Salix pentandra on May 31, and were 

 quite numerous by June 15, and their work noticeable. In one 

 leaf, two and one quarter inches long and one inch wide, 329 feed- 

 ing holes were counted. The species is not recorded in Smith's 

 List of the Insects of New Jersey, although it is known to occur 

 on Salix lucida and also on black willow Salix nigra, at Euther- 

 ford, where all of the observations recorded in this paper were 

 made. 



In New Jersey the beetles go into hibernation about the latter 

 part of September and first of October, selecting such places as 

 under loose bark, in partly dead wood, in dry stumps of limbs, etc. 

 Here they may be found in colonies of varying numbers, depending 

 on the size of their hibernation quarters. If suitable weather pre- 

 vails a few beetles Avill emerge about the middle of April or even 

 before and can be found crawling over the bark. Feeding soon 

 takes places and by the last of April and first of May noticeable 

 damage is being done to the leaves. Even at this early date many 

 leaves will be brown and dry if the beetles are numerous. Feeding 

 continues all during May, interrupted by copulation during the 

 latter half of this month. Eggs are deposited during the last of 

 May and first part of June, and by the middle of June hatching 

 is under way and small mines are visible. By the last of June 

 the mines, together Avi'th the larvne, are good-sized and much in 



1 Rhynch. N. E. Amer., p. 282, 1916. 



= 41st Ann. Kept. Ent. Soc. Ont., p. 15, 1910. 



