THE ALFALFA WEEVIL. 



Fig. 4. — The alfalfa 

 weevil: Eggs. 

 Greatly enlarged. 

 (Original.) 



killing them in their efforts to oviposit in them. Some idea of the 



abundance of these eggs and the extent to which the pest may breed 



in vacant lots and other waste lands where alfalfa 



has escaped from cultivation and grows as a weed 



ma}^ be obtained from the fact that in one case a 



single plant has been found to contain 127 of 



these egg punctures in the midst of the egg-laying 



season, with the punctures fresh and new. As one 



puncture may contain anywhere from a few to 



over 30 eggs, probably 10 or 15 on the average, 



this single plant presumably contained between 



1,200 and 1,300 eggs at the time it was observed. If these hatched 



and half of them developed into female beetles and 80 per cent of the 



latter passed the winter, this plant might in 

 a year give rise to over 150,000 beetles. 



THE YOUNG. 



Most of these eggs (fig. 4, greatly en- 

 larged) hatch in about 10 days after being 

 deposited, and the minute young, almost 

 white in color, make their way to the leaves, 

 first eating holes therein, soon assume a de- 

 cidedly green color, and when full grown 

 are about one-fourth of an inch long, with 

 a white stripe along the back and the some- 

 what hooked appearance shown by some of 

 those in the illustration (fig. 2). The attack 

 is now confined to the young leaves and the crown of the plant, thus 

 preventing its growth, and a badly infested field of alfalfa will fre- 

 quently attain no greater height than about 6 inches, 

 too short to mow at all. If the field is mown over 

 most of the larvae will of course be shaken off and 

 drop to the surface of the ground. While some of 

 these perish, those that survive and live upon the 

 fresh growth, together with those hatching from 

 eggs deposited after the mowing, develop sufficient 

 numbers to overwhelm and destroy the second crop. 

 The larvae continue to attack the plants, being most 

 abundant during May and graduallj' becoming less 

 abundant throughout the month of June. As these 

 transform, the adults become more and more abun- 

 dant as the season advances, and not only do they 

 feed upon the fresh growth, but they also eat the bark from the 

 stems, and thus, where excessively abundant, totally destroy the 



Fig. 5. — The alfalfa "weevil : 

 Cocoon. Much enlarged. 

 (Original.) 



Fig. 6. — The alfalfa 

 weevil : Larva. 

 Much enlarged. 

 (Original, i 



