45 



INDICATIONS OF INJURY. 



The first indications of injury by the pepper weevil may be seen 

 in the dropping- of the peppers and the general unhealthy aspect of 

 the plant and of the fruit remaining thereon. The small peppers, 

 becoming infested immediately after the blossoms fall, drop in large 

 numbers, so that the ground at the base of the plants becomes strewn 

 with the decaying fruit. This condition may be taken as a tolerably 

 certain sign of infestation. Not only is the small fruit affected, but 

 the full-grown peppers also fall to the ground; and if one of these 

 be opened the interior will be found either wholly or partly black- 

 ened and decayed, the seeds having been eaten into and the pulp 

 consumed, until finally decomposition completes the work of destruc- 

 tion' The author of this damage may be found, in most cases, within 

 the pepper, either in the larval or pupal stage (PI. I), or the adult 

 itself may be found in the pod, from which it would ultimately have 

 escaped by cutting away a hole just large enough to allow the passage 

 of its body (PI. I, fig. 2, d). In the small fruit the occurrence of 

 eggs or young larvtx? is indicated by the presence of scars made by 

 the weevils either for oviposition or feeding. The large fruit often 

 appears unsightly and misshapen from this injury. The absence of 

 blooms is another indication of the presence of this pest. Although 

 only a small proportion of the buds are usually infested, still, as 

 those that have been punctured fail to bloom, the lack of blossoms 

 is undoubtedly due, to a considerable extent, to the work of this insect. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



As is common with other species of Anthonomus, the. eggs are 

 placed in such a position as to be invisible to the naked e^^e and well 

 protected from any conditions detrimental to their future develop- 

 ment. Eggs are laid in the very small buds of the pepper plant, in 

 the blooms, or in the young fruit just after the blossoms fall. The 

 intermediate and also the mature stages of the fruit offer favorable 

 conditions for the deposition of eggs. The weevils apparently pre- 

 fer, however, to oviposit in the peppers immediately after the blooms 

 fall, observations made in the field showing that fruit affected at this 

 stage contained a relatively larger number of eggs than did the more 

 mature peppers. 



The female, with her long snout, bores a small hole through the 

 pod (PI. I, fig. 1, h, and fig. 2, h) and, if necessary for the reception 

 of the egg, excavates a cavity in the adjacent seeds of the fruit. If 

 the pepper has already attained sufficient growth so that the seeds do 

 not come in contact with the outer wall of the pod, the egg may be left 

 protruding, with about one-half of its length exposed on the inner 



