GENUINE SNOUT-BEETLES. 



181 



The soft and white larvse possess no feet, and feed chiefly 

 on fruits, seeds and nuts, but all parts of plants are subject to 

 their attacks. 



The female bores a hole with her snout, and deposits an egg 

 in the hole thus formed, pushing the egg to the bottom of it with 

 her beak. For this purpose the snout of a female beetle is very 

 long, sometimes longer than the remainder of the body, as may 

 be seen in the acorn weevil illustrated later. 



Although not injurious to fruit-producing plants there are a 

 number of small snout-beetles which are so frequently sent to the 

 entomologist as being injurious to the roots of grasses, that a few 

 words about them may not be out of place. The species of 

 Sitones, of which a number occur in our state, are all small, black- 

 ish-gray, covered with very minute scales, and in some cases 

 marked with a number of darker spots, interrupted by white, ar- 

 ranged in regular longitudinal rows. Some species are illus- 

 trated in Fig. 195. 



Fig. 195. — S/foaes species. ■^lAfter Brehtn. 



THE NEW YORK WEEVIL. 



[Ithycerus novehoracoiis Forster). • 



This is about the largest snout-beetle we have in our state ; 

 it is not only the largest, however, but also sometimes exceedingly 

 destructive, especially so in early spring, when plum trees grow- 

 ing near oak forests are badly injured. In such cases the beetles 

 congregate upon plum and other fruit trees in May or early June, 

 eating the buds and gnawing into the twigs, chiefly at their base, 



