14 



principal drawbacks to the cultivation of the pecan. Indeed, in many 

 parts of the South it already divides that distinction with the husk- 

 worm, so that it has been truthfully said that what the husk-worm 

 leaves the weevil destroys. 



The beetle (fig. 13) is about the same size as the larger chestnut 

 Aveevil, from which it may be distinguished by its much duller color « 

 and by the relative lengths of the first and second antennal joints, the 

 first joint being longer than the second in the pecan-infesting species. 

 The larva differs from that of prohoscideus in being decidedly yel- 

 low, having the head bright 

 red and wider than long. Its 

 cervical plate also is darker. 

 The pupa is similar to that of 

 the larger chestnut weevil. 



The distribution extends 

 from New York to the Gulf, 

 and westward at least to Iowa. 

 The life history of this wee- 

 vil, as it occurs in the pecan 

 in the South, is, so far as can 

 be gathered from rei:)orts from 

 Georgia and Texas and from 

 laboratory experiments, very 

 similar to that of the chestnut 

 weevils. According to the ob- 

 servations of Mr. H. A. Halbert, at Coleman, Tex., the female begins 

 to deposit her eggs in August while the jDecan is still immature, and 

 the larva usually escapes from the nuts in the latter part of Septem- 

 ber and in October; but most of them do not issue until the husks 

 open, allowing the nuts to fall. In Georgia they have been found in 

 the nuts as late as the middle of January. 



re:\iedies. 



The same care in the selection of the site for a pecan orchard is 

 advised as in the case of chestnut culture, with this difference, that the 

 grower should avoid planting in the vicinity of wild pecan and hick- 

 ory of wliatever kind. The entire crop, also, should be harvested or 

 hogs should be turned in to devour what nuts are left. At Tliomas- 

 ville, Ga., Mr. Wilmon Newell observed in 1904 that where swine and 

 chickens had had access to a pecan grove, the ground was well rooted 

 and self tched up and there was less loss from weevils than in the pre- 



"The ground color is uniform darli l)rovvu, nearly blacli, and the scaly covorint: 

 (wliieli characterizes the chestnut weevils) in this species is hair-like on tlie 

 thorax, fine and somewhat sparse on the wing-covers, and nnich duller, with 

 little or no mottling. Moreover, the beak of the female is, comparatively, a litth' 

 shorter, although of about the same curvature, and Is less with'iicd at the base. 

 M'ir. 0!)| 



Fig. 13. — Pecan weevil { Balaninus caryx) : a, Female, 

 dorsal view ; b. same, lateral view, in outline ; 

 c, head with rostrum and antenna of male. About 

 two and one-half times natural si/e (author's 

 illustration). 



