8 FARMERS’ BULLETIN 1741.’ 
color of old, weathered specimens is nearly black, owmg to the dark 
ground color revealed by the shedding of the brown, and yellow scales 
which at first clothe its upper surface. The adult stays close to the 
ground during early spring and late fall, but climbs about in the 
tops of the plants during the warm season. It is not readily seen 
by one walking through the fields, because it habitually drops to the 
ground when disturbed, and its color helps to make it invisible. It 
can be captured during the warm weather by sweeping the plants 
with a net and during the cooler spring and fall weather by sitting 
quietly in the field and catching it when it moves on the ground. 
In the winter it can be found by digging about 
the crowns and roots of alfalfa plants. 
THE EGGS. 
The eggs (fig. 6) are less conspicuous than the 
larve and adults, because they are usually con- 
cealed within the stems of the plants; but the 
holes in which they are placed are found in large 
numbers by examining the green stems during May 
and June, and in smaller numbers as early as 
March and as late as December. The eggs are small, 
oval, shiny globules, bright yellow when first laid, 
but dingy after a few days when incubation has 
begun, and adorned during the latter part of the 
incubation period with a black spot where the head 
of the little larva shows through the transparent 
shell. A few eggs, some of them infertile, are laid 
on the outside of the plants, and more in the weeds 
and grasses which grow in the field. Late in the 
fall and early in the spring there are many in the 
Fic. 6.—Thealfalfa weevil: dead stems on the ground. 
ne ga eae When an alfalfa grower outside the territory 
known. to be infested finds in his field any insect 
which he suspects to be a form of the alfalfa weevil, he should send it 
to the Bureau of Entomology field station at Salt Lake City, Utah, to 
be identified. If it proves to be the alfalfa weevil, it is important 
that work should begin without delay, so that the measures that will 
be effective in controlling the pest under the new conditions may be 
learned. This work requires study of the traveling, feeding, mating, 
and egg-laying habits of the insect; of the effect upon it of climate, 
crop conditions, and farm operations; and of the agricultural condi- 
tions of the region, in order that the conditions favoring the growth, 
increase, and work of the weevil and the conditions necessary to 
destroy it or hinder its work may be ascertained. So far as these 
things are already known in regard to the country now occupied by 
the weevil they are here set forth. 
