Article I. — The Apple Flea-weevil, Orchestes pallicornis Say 

 (Order, Coleoptera; Family, Curculionidae).* By W. P. Flint, S. C. 

 Chandler, and P. A. Glenn. 



Historical 



The apple flea-weevil was described by Thomas Say in 1831, from 

 specimens taken in Posey county, Indiana. At that time it was not con- 

 sidered an economic pest. Seventy years later Dr. S. A. Forbes reported 

 in the Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society (1901) 

 that the beetle had been found fairly numerous at a number of points in 

 southern Illinois by Mr. E. S. G. Titus, but no damage to orchards 

 was noticed until 1905 and 1906, when some was reported from the 

 southern and western parts of the state. 



In Ohio the insect was not known as an orchard pest until about 

 1907, when it attracted attention in two adjoining commercial orchards 

 near Delaware, Ohio, in the central part of the state. 



The first account of its life history and habits appeared (under the 

 authorship of Mr. C. A. Hart) in 1911 in the 26th Report of the Illinois 

 State Entomologist.t and the first published record of severe damage by 

 the insect was published in 1913 by Dr. S. A. Forbes in the Transac- 

 tions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society. During that season the 

 weevil appeared in large numbers at several points in southern Illinois 

 and caused damage amounting to a destruction of 25 per cent, to 50 

 per cent, of the leaf surface of the apples in a number of well-sprayed 

 orchards. It was reported as occurring throughout the state but as 

 doing no appreciable damage in the northern section. In this paper 

 Dr. Forbes, in view of its membership in the weevil family, its infesta- 

 tion of the apple, and its thickened hind thighs and flea-like power and 

 habit of making long leaps when disturbed, gave the species the ver- 

 nacular name of the apple flea- weevil, and by this name it is now gener- 

 ally known. 



During the past decade it has become so destructive over a large 

 area in Illinois and in a limited section of Ohio that serious study of 

 the life history and control of the pest has been made by both the Illi- 

 nois Natural History Survey and the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, and the present publication is issued to set forth the results of 

 these studies. 



* The data upon which this article is based, were accumulated for the most 

 part independently by the Illinois Natural History Survey and the Ohio Agricul- 

 tural Experiment .Station and each had made plans to publish. It was found, 

 however, that by combining the data and cooperating in the preparation of a re- 

 port a much more complete treatment of the subject would be possible. The 

 resulting papers, substantially equivalent, althuush not necessarily identical in 

 all particulars, are to be published In Bulletin 372 of the Ohio Aericultural Experi- 

 ment .Station, with J. S. Houser as author, and in the Bulletin of the Illinois State 

 Natural History Survey, with authorship as shown herewith. 



t In this paper the Insect was erroneously identified as Orchestes canus, and the 

 remarks concerning Its distribution relate to that species. 



