276 KiiPOHT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE STEAWBEEEY WEEVIL. 



{Anthonomus nmsculus, Say.) 



Order ColeopterA; Family Curculionid^. 



[Plate VII; Figs. G and 7.j 



PAST HISTORY. 



The first reference that we have been able to trace to this insect as 

 injurious to the Strawberry will be found in the Monthly Eeport of the 

 Department for November-December, 1871, where Mr. Glover gives an 

 account of its appearance, with the statement from Mr. B. Bryan, Silver 

 Hill, Md., that the weevils were injuring his strawberries soon after 

 these were blooming, the beetle piercing the blossom-buds and the foot- 

 stalks of the blossom-bud. The insect was there referred to by the 

 name of Anthonomus signatiis, Say {bmgnatus Schcenh.). He also showed 

 that no vestiges of the egg or larva could be found. In May, 1873, we 

 found it quite injurious on Mr. H. Weaver's farm near Saint Louis, 

 and our notes show that the injury was done to the blossoms, although 

 the strawberries were at the time out of bloom ; that when the weevils 

 are not at work they hide in the flower ; and that they were also occa- 

 sionally found in the blossoms of the Blueberry. Ten years later, or in 

 1883, Prof. A. J. Cook published an account of its injuries in the report 

 of the Michigan State Horticultural Society for 1883, where he states 

 that it was ruining the crop on Mr. William Chapman's place at Phcenix, 

 Keweenaw County, Michigan, in July of that year, bu^ that it disap- 

 peared about August 1. Since then Professor Cook has made no men- 

 tion of it, from which we infer that it has not again appeared in injurious 

 numbers. Prof. S. A. Forbes, in his extensive article on the insect ene- 

 mies of the Strawberry, published in the Thirteen tli Eeport of the State 

 Entomologist of Illinois (1883), mentioned this species, but added no 

 new facts, simi^ly quoting Professor Cook's article. 



INJURY IN 1885. 



During the summer of 1884 this Strawberry Weevil, or Strawberry 

 Anthonomus, made its appearance in a new locality, this time at Eoss- 

 ville, Staten Island, N. Y., on the farm of Mr. Samuel G. Wiuant. ]Mr. 

 "* Viuant's crop was damaged to the amount of about $1,500. In May, 

 1885, the beetle again appeared in countless numbers in the same local- 

 ity and spread to adjoining gardens. It was at this time that our at- 

 tention was first called to this outbreak, and wo entered into corre- 

 spondence with Mr. Winant and had Mr. Smith make examination of 

 tlie circumstances in the field. 



Mr. Wiuant, writing under date of June 15, made the following state- 

 ment: 



* * * Please find inclosed a sample of tlio strawberry Beetle. Thoy attack the 

 bearing stems just under the hull by boring a hole in the stem, and the forming berry 

 drojis to the ground or dries up. Those which escape and open into white blossoms 

 arc attacked and pierced by these insects. Early in the spring of 1684 I was offered 

 $3,000 for my •cop, but in a few days this party declined to take it on account of the 

 damage done by these insects. At first I supposed it was caused by frost. My imo 

 acres of Sharpless strawberries are entirely used up. If all that are now left were 

 ripo at once I am i^ositive it would not amount to a quart to the acre. This is a very 



