16 



Mr, B. E. Behrend for assistance in this line. In response to numerous 

 invitations tVoni local fruit-growers, in 1893 the writer visited some of 

 tlie infested farms in Maryland and Virginia and made some additional 

 observations on the habits of the species. 



NOTES ON HABITS AND LIFE HISTORY. 



l^ew Food-plants; Early Appearance of the Insect. — The strawberry- 

 weevil was first noticed abroad April IG, 1893, and on the loth, of 1891, 

 in great abundance, on a new food-plant, the red-bud or Judas-tree 

 {Cercis canadensis)^ which grows iu profusion along the banks of the 

 Potomac, about Washington. This tree had not yet bloomed, but the 

 insect had already begun its attack, as great numbers of punctured 

 buds bore witness, showing that it had been at work for several days. 



Early-ilowering plants were unusually backward in blooming here 

 the past two seasons, and this had its effect on the appearance of the 

 insect. In earlier seasons it undoubtedly appears by the first week of 

 April, as the red-bud is known to bloom at that time. The beetles, then, 

 are abroad so.me time before strawberries bloom, and may appear on 

 the vines before blossoming. They are doubtless attracted to the 

 vines, however, mainly by the open flowers to which they first resort 

 for food, although they also derive much nourishment from the pollen 

 within the buds. 



Very soon after first bloom they are to be found in great abun- 

 dance. Appearing, as they often do, in great numbers almost from the 

 outset, their injuries are severe even in such seasons as the past two, 

 when only from 10 to 20 per cent of a crop is lost in the aggregate, 

 because the blossoms chiefly injured are the earliest, and consequently 

 the shortage is largely in the early fruit, or that which would have 

 brought the highest market price. 



Certain red-bud trees growing on the border of woodland, where they 

 are protected from the wind and fully exposed to the sun, were much 

 frequented by these insects, and of the thousands of buds which they 

 bore a majority were attacked and severed from the stem in the char- 

 acteristic manner of this weevil. Other trees in the vicinity were com- 

 paratively free from attack. One of the infested trees was visited May 

 13 and the ground was seen to be strewn with the discolored buds. A 

 number were gathered and examined only to find them all empty, hav- 

 ing been torn open by ants, of which there were two species crawling 

 in abundance about them. This would seem to prove that the red-bud 

 is not necessarily a factor of great importance in the economy of this 

 insect, since only such trees as are fully exposed to the sun served to 

 attract the weevil in great numbers and the immature ofl:spring of 

 these are very liable to fall a prey to ants. The two species observed 

 among the infested buds have been identified by Mr. Th. Pergande as 

 Formica fiisca Linn, and Apluvnogaster fidva Eog. 



DeM'berrics (Eubns canadensis) were found to be infested in about the 



