m\ 
88 
themselves in the ground May 23 and 24 and gave beetles June 13. 
Four of these beetles were kept alive until August 28, and August 29 
one male and one female remained. The female laid eggs Oct. 16, 17, 
21, 24, and 25. These eggs had not hatched February 23, 1906, but 
had just hatched March 21 ; by March 29 the larvae had died, however, 
from a scarcely excusable neglect to supply them with food. The 
parent beetles had died the year before, about November 11. 
This account of the life history is in some respects at variance 
with that of Riley (1882, pp. 175, 176). In central Illinois the egg 
period in autumn is from 23 to 45 days in the breeding-cage. Fur- 
thermore, none of the larvae born in autumn give beetles in that season ; 
the beetles do not emerge until the following June or thereabouts, and 
some of these are the beetles that will enter upon hibernation. In my 
experience, no eggs are laid in spring. In a warmer latitude than this 
there might very well be a second generation of beetles, to hibernate 
and to lay eggs the following spring. Indeed, in this latitude, the little 
autumn larvae, if taken indoors and fed, will produce beetles in mid- 
winter. 
Here, then, the clover leaf-weevil winters chiefly as a small larva ; 
occasionally in the egg; never as a pupa, in my experience; and rarely 
as a beetle. No eggs are laid in spring, however, and there is clearly 
but one generation a year, tho this generation is straggling instead of 
compact. 
Habits. — The larvae that have hibernated are ready to eat the red 
clover as soon as it starts on its second year's growth. At any time 
during the winter one can get plenty of these larvae by digging up 
clover sod and starting the growth of the clover indoors. 
In midwinter, on a mild day (Jan. 6, 1903), the larvae were feeding 
in abundance on red clover plants in Urbana, 111. (R. D. Glasgow) — 
and in broad daylight. This is unusual, for at other times of the year 
they feed only at night or else at dusk or in daytime when the sky is 
sufficiently cloudy. Ordinarily, when the sun is shining they are found 
curled up in shaded situations, usually on the ground, but occasionally 
among the stems of their food plant. When feeding at night the larger 
larvae drop to the ground -when approached, but the smaller ones re- 
main clinging to the leaflets, just as Riley observed. The larva fre- 
quently curls itself around the edge of a leaflet and bites out a small 
round piece from the blade; or it may secure a hold by gripping a hair 
of the leaf between two of its body segments. Only the youngest larvae 
make the little round holes in the leaflets ; the older larvae eat gaps in 
the edges. 
The feeding of the larvae in spring is more or less intermittent, 
being suspended at every cold spell. In 1907, when the entire month 
of April was cold in central Illinois and frequent freezes blackened 
more than one third of the red clover leaves, the larvae of the leaf- 
weevil, like their food plant, made no growth during the month of 
April, but became dormant again until May. tho they had been active 
during the warm weather of late March. Retarded in their develop- 
