Weevils in Beans and Peas. 13 
Thus while certain beetles having access to pea plants lived only 
four or five weeks, others were found alive in dried seeds 14 months 
after the seeds were gathered. The female weevils lay their yellowish 
eggs singly upon the surface of the pods to which they attach them 
with a peculiar viscid secretion. The young grub upon hatching 
egnaws through the pod and burrows into the seed where it does prac- 
tically all its feeding. While as many as six young grubs have been 
found in single seeds, it is seldom that more than one matur es and 
emerges. (See Pige11.) 
The length of time required for the 
eggs to hatch and for the grub or — 
larva to mature into the adult of the 
next generation varies with the cli- 
mate. In the District of Columbia 
adults have appeared as early as July 
21. Others have been reared as late 
as the middle of August. A very con- 
siderable portion of the beetles mature 
and leave the seeds in the latter part of 
the summer in the latitude of Wash- 
ington, D. C., but farther north and 
in higher altitudes the adults remain 
in the peas until the following spring, 
when they emerge in storage or are 
planted with the seed. It is in the 
adult stage that the weevil passes the 
winter, hibernating either in secluded 
spots in fields or buildings or in the 
pea seed itself. The pea weevil has 
only one generation a year and can not 
reproduce in dried peas. Fic. 11.—Garden peas showing 
exit hole of the pea _ weevil. 
THE COMMON BEAN WEEVIL. Note that only one weevil de- 
velops in a single pea. One seed 
wats has been sectioned to show cav- 
The common bean weevil is the most ity made by grub. Enlarged. 
formidable enemy to the culture of 
beans in the United States as well as in many other ree 
It occurs in nearly every State, the Territory of Hawaii, and is 
generally distributed throughout Mexico, Central America, and 
South America. It has been found in beans imported from southern 
Europe, Persia, India, China, Algeria, South Africa, Madeira, the 
Azores, and aN Canary Islands. Commerce has carried it to all 
the Vehe markets of the world. So severe is its attack in the 
warmer sections of this country that dried beans for seed and for 
food are grown mostly in the more northern States and California. 
® Bruchus obtectus Say. 
