GENUINE SNOUT-BEETLES. 



215 



THE CHESTNUT WEEVIL. 



( Balaiiiiius caryafrypes Boh.). 



As this species shows the forms of all nieniliers of this g>:^nus 

 it is described and illustrated in Fig. 229. It is the largest, and 

 like the others, of a clay-yellow color, marked with brown spots 

 arranged in wavy lines. It has an exceedingly long and slender 

 black beak, which in the female is longer than the entire insect, 

 and is gracefully curved ; in the male the rostrum is not much 

 longer than the wing-covers. Dr. Le Conte, in his work on "The 

 Rhynchophora of i\merica." remarks that the beak of these 

 beetles attains in length and attenuation the greatest development ; 



Fig. 229 — Balaninus caryatrypes, Buh. 

 After Division of Entomology, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



Fig. 230. — Balaninua rectus. Say. 

 After Division of Entomology, U. 

 S. Department of Agricultiire. 



in the male it is rarely shorter than the body, in the female it is 

 frequently twice the length, and is used to make the perforation 

 into which the egg is subsequently introduced. The great thick- 

 ness of the husks of the fruit, (chestnuts, walnuts, hickory nuts, 

 etc.) attacked by these insects necessitates a very long perfor- 

 ating instrument to reach the kernel upon which the larva feeds. 

 The chestnut is often badly infested by this large white maggot 

 with a yellowish head, which attains its full size at the time the 

 nuts drop. It is found in nuts sent to the market, and it is prob- 

 able that while some of the maggots gnaw their way out. and enter 

 the ground in the autumn to transform, others delay until the 

 spring, and this is but natural, as the adults are found almost 

 throughout the warmer portions of the year, depositing eggs dur- 



