THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 57 



THE NEW YORK WEEVIL— Il/njccrus noveboracensis, Forster. 



cut 



The large gray beetle represented at c, in 

 often does considerable damage to fruit 



the accompanying 

 trees, and I con- 



tinually receive it every spring by persons 

 who desire to know more of its habits. It kills 

 the twig by gnawing off the tender bark, in 

 the early part of the season before the buds have 

 put out, and later in the year it destroys the ten- 

 der shoots which start out from old wood, by 

 entirely devouring them. It eats out the buds 

 and will also frequently gnaw off the leaves at the 

 00 base of the stem, after they have expanded. It 

 attacks, by preference, the tender growth of the 

 Apple, though it will also make free with that of 

 Peach, Plum, Pear and Cherry, and probably of 

 other fruit as well as forest trees. It is the largest 

 snout-beetle which occurs in our State, and with 

 the rest of the species belonging to the same gen- 

 us (/^ycm4S=straight-horn) it is distinguished from most of the 

 other snout-beetles by the antennae or feelers being straight instead 

 of elbowed or flail-shaped as they are in the common Plum Curculio> 

 for instance. The specific name noveboracensis which means " of New 

 York" was given to this beetle just 100 years ago by Forster, doubt- 

 less because he received his specimens from New York. But like 

 many other insects which have been honored with the name of some 

 Eastern State, it is far more common in the Mississippi Valley than 

 it is in the the State of New York, it scarcely being known as an 

 injurious insect in the East. It was subsequently described as Pa- 

 hyrhynchus Schxnherri by Mr. Kirby. The general color of the 

 beetle is ash-gray, marked with black as in the cut (Fig. 20, c), and 

 with the scutel or small semi-circular space immediately behind the 

 thorax, between the wings, of a yellowish color. Its larval habits 

 were for a long time unknown, but two years ago I ascertained that 

 it breeds in the twigs and tender branches of the Bur oak, and have 

 good reason to believe that it also breeds in those of the Pignut 

 hickory. The female in depositing, first makes a longitudinal exca- 

 vation with her jaws CFig. 20, a) eating upwards under the bark 

 towards the end of the branch, and afterwards turns round to thrust 

 her egg in the excavation. The larva, (Fig. 20, b) hatching from the 

 egg is of the usual pale yellow color with a tawny head. I have 

 watched the whole operation of depositing, and, returning to the 

 punctured twig a few days after the operation was performed, have 

 cut out the young larva ; but I do not know how long a time the larva 

 needs to come to its growth, nor whether it undergoes its transforma- 

 tions within the branch, or leaves it for this purpose to enter the 

 ground; though the former hypothesis is the more likely. 



