17 



B. D. Walsh, and comments were given on its injuries in Illinois, Ohio, 

 and Kentucky. Injury by this species is more or less local and inter- 

 mittent. Serious injury was reported by G. R. Wood in 1890 in the 

 vicinity of Sandusky, and in 1891 Professor Webster found it very 

 destructive in vineyards in Franklin County, Ark. For the past 

 eight or ten years the grape curculio has been very destructive in 

 many localities in West Virginia, destroying in many vineyards a large 

 percentage of the crop. The species has been carefully studied by 

 Mr. Fred E. Brooks, of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and reported on in detail in Bulletin 100 of that institution. 

 As shown by the experience in West Virginia and elsewhere, the 

 species, under certain conditions, may become a very serious pest, 

 ranking with the root-worm or berry moth. Mr. Brooks has shown 

 that the insect is readily con- 

 trolled with arsenical poisons 

 and, as will be detailed later, 

 (p. 47) treatments for the root- 

 worm and berry moth will also 

 keep this pest under control. 



Life History and Habits. 



The insect passes the winter 

 in the adult or beetle stage, 

 hiding under trash in and 

 near vineyards, especially bor- 

 dering woods. About the 

 time in the spring that the 

 grape is in bloom the beetles 

 come from their hibernation 

 quarters and for the first few 

 days or a week are quite slug- 

 gish, but gradually become 

 more active, feeding on the 

 foliage of the grape until the 

 berries are about one-fourth 

 grown or of sufficient size to 

 be suitable for receiving the 

 eggs — according to Mr. 

 Brooks, in 1905, covering a period of about 25 days. This habit 

 of feeding on the exposed portions of the vines some 3 to 4 weeks 

 before egg-laying permits of their ready destruction by arsenical 

 poisons. Late in June, in the latitude of West Virginia, the females 

 begin depositing eggs in the berries, excavating a cavity in which a 

 single egg is placed. About 4 to 6 days, varying with the tempera- 

 ture, are required for the eggs to hatch, and the resulting larva bur- 

 rows through the pulp, reaching the seed in 3 or 4 days, which is pene- 

 trated and the contents devoured. In 12 to 15 days the larva has 

 become full grown and leaves the berry by eating a hole to the outside, 

 falls to the ground and at once seeks a suitable place for pupation, as 

 under stones, lumps of earth, or just below the surface of the soil. 

 Here an earthen cell is made and the larva transforms to the pupa, thj 

 27724— No, 284—07 3 



Fig. 4. — Work of grape curculio ( Craponius insequalis) 

 in berry of grape: a, Berry from wliich grub or larva 

 has emerged; b, adult or weevil ovipositing on berry; 

 c, enlarged section of portion of berry, showing egg 

 cavity and egg; d, injured berry, cut open and show- 

 ing larva at work, o, b, d. Enlarged; c, highly mag- 

 nified. 



