130 PEAR. 
for years past. They appear about the first week in May, and eat the 
young buds of the Apple trees, &c. We have been catching them in 
large milk-pans, with a little paraffin oil put in the pan, which kills 
them very shortly. P.S.—I may say the weevils are now disappearing 
very quickly.”’ 
We do not appear (so far as I am aware) to have any English 
observations as to the life-history of this beetle in its early conditions; 
but there appears no reason to doubt the accuracy of the life-history 
given in Kollar’s ‘ Insects,’* from Schmidberger’s observations, 
although Nordlinger supposed that the larvee went not into the ground, 
but into rolled-together leafage. The life-history is given as follows :— 
“In June the female enters the earth to deposit her eggs there; and 
the grub that is produced from the egg feeds on the roots of different 
kinds of plants, passes the winter in the earth, and appears again 
transformed into a beetle in spring. . . . It makes its appearance 
very early in spring, and is seen on the leaves when it has scarcely 
completed its development’ [that is, presumably before it has gained 
its full colouring, Ep.]. ‘It particularly prefers young trees, to 
‘which it is very destructive. No kind of fruit tree is secure from its 
gluttony; the leaves of the Pear, Apple, Plum, and Apricot, and 
particularly those of the Peach, it considers delicious food. It 
generally selects only the best part of the leaf, and leaves the mid-rib 
and the petiole.’’—(S.) 
Dr. Taschenberg notes this attack as frequently causing great 
damage in nurseries of young trees by destroying the buds, and also 
preying on the grafts and young leaves. 
PreveNTION AND Remepries.—Beating the beetles down in the early 
morning, or on dull days, is one way of lessening their numbers; and 
bearing in mind that as they are winged, the various precautions 
always advised should be taken against the disturbed beetles flying 
away and coming back to the trees. 
Likewise washings or sprayings, as mentioned at p. 129, or of any 
other insecticide poisonous or destructive to the beetles, and harmless 
to the leafage, could not fail to be beneficial. 
To protect grafts, it is recommended to smear grafting-wax, or a 
mixture of clay, which might keep off the beetles. (I have no ex- 
perience of this treatment myself.) 
For winter treatment, anything done to the bark would presumably 
be quite useless, as, so far as appears, the larve and chrysalids are 
* See Kollar, ‘Naturgesch. der Schadl. Insekten,’ pp. 258-260; English trans- 
lation, pp. 251, 252, in which this weevil is noted under various synonyms. In the 
English translation, revised by Prof. Westwood, that of Nemoicus is added, being 
the generic name under which Stephens separated this downy and scaleless Phyllo- 
bius from the scale-bearing species. 
