180 



cult of explanation, seems to be on a par with similar late occurrences 

 of many other insects which might be mentioned. 



Habits of the Adults. — The adult beetles, when not occupied in some 

 manner m providing for the continuance of the species, may be seen 

 sunning themselves in the flowers, or with their snouts buried among 

 the anthers feeding on pollen. 



There are reasons for the belief that it is principally the males that 

 loiter within the blossoms, where they wait for their mates, while the 

 latter are busied in the more serious occupation of oviposition. Pollen 

 furnishes apparently by far the largest proportion of the adult food 

 supply, but the petals are also nibbled and often completely destroyed. 

 A certain amount of liquid food is necessary to these little creatures 

 and a quantity of the juice and of stem tissue is doubtless absorbed 

 while puncturing the buds and stems during the process of oviposition. 

 The leaves are never attacked as far as observed. In the breeding cage 

 a number of beetles were found feeding upon the pollen of injured buds, 

 that had been opened and were old and brown. Numbers congregated 

 on the immature fruit where they fed upon pollen and possibly on both 

 stamens and pistils, and still others were seen to penetrate the unex- 

 panded buds in search of food. It is somewhat uncertain whether the 

 insects act in this manner in the rteld, but it is likely that they do so 

 to a certain extent, for in cases observed in confinement there was an 

 abundance of blossoms in the cage and there was no reason why the 

 insects should have acted otherwise than in nature. Many buds Avere 

 opened, particularly late in the season, that had been killed by the in- 

 sects and in which neither eggs nor larvre could be found. 



In imncturing the buds for feeding purposes the motions of the in- 

 sect are substantially as when drilling a hole for oviposition, but with 

 the addition that the insect partially withdraws its beak from time to 

 time, as if to masticate, and devour what particles had been dislodged, 

 and then again plunges it in at a different angle. 



As to the other habits of these beetles they are comparatively slug- 

 gish, but more active than many of the Rhyuchophora. They seldom 

 fly, but crawl from one part of a plant to another and even across the 

 ground when they wish to reach other plants. Their flight, as observed 

 in a large breeding cage, is quite rapid. Although ordinarily so loth 

 to take to wing I have seen a male insect fly a distance of two inches to 

 reach a female perched on a flower belonging to another plant. It is 

 probable that the females fly less often than the males. 



When busily feeding with their snouts in a flower they are not easily 

 alarmed, but when not so engaged they quickly roll to the ground if 

 disturbed and remain there with their legs and antennae rigidly drawn 

 together, after the manner of their kind. On bright, warm days, how- 

 ever, they seldom remain thus more than a minute at a time. 



At the times when the strawberry fields were visited comparatively 



