15 



be damaged in this manner, with the result that the crop is 

 almost entirely lost. Pear blossoms are also occasionally 

 attacked by the weevil, but the losses are seldom serious. 



Description and Life-History. The adult beetle is a 

 small insect about in. in length with a long rostrum or 

 " trunk." In colour it is black or brownish, dotted with fine 

 grey hair, and across the wing-cases (elytra), which appear 

 to form the " back " of the insect, is a light-coloured, greyish 

 or yellowish mark. This mark is more or less in the form of 

 a V, and is very characteristic of the insect (Fig. b). The 

 adult weevils appear in spring and crawl or fly to the apple 

 trees, on which they may often be found in numbers during 

 the period preceding the opening of the blossom. Eggs are 

 laid as follows : The female weevil bores a hole into the un- 

 opened bud, lays an egg in the hole and then pushes it down 

 with her trunk, afterwards sealing up the hole with saliva. 

 Only one egg is laid in each blossom, and a single female can 

 probably lay 50 eggs or more. If the weather happens to be 

 such that the apple blossom expands very rapidly, the flowers 

 may open before or about the time when the egg hatches, 

 in which case the insect dies. As a rule, however, the grub 

 appears first and prevents the petals from expanding. The 

 larva grows rapidly, and in a fortnight is full grown. It is 

 then a pale yellowish grub with a brown head (Fig. d) and lies 

 in the cavity of the capped blossom in the curved position 

 usual to weevil larvae. The bloom by then is practically dead 

 and the. larva* turns to a pupa (Fig. /). About a week or ten 

 days afterwards the pupa casts its skin and becomes an adult 

 weevil, the insect remaining a short time within the blossom 

 and then eating its way out through a hole in the side. These 

 weevils may be found upon the apple trees for 3 .or 4 weeks 

 after their emergence, but they gradually disappear- and long 

 before the autumn they have all found their way to winter 

 quarters as, for instance, under rough bark on the trees, 

 beneath stones or rubbish on the ground, or in dead J eaves, 

 hedge cuttings, &c. They remain there during the winter, 

 and in the following spring come out again and return to the 

 apple trees, when a fresh generation is produced. 



Natural Enemies. The Apple Blossom Weevil is eaten 

 by birds such as tits, and is also destroyed by insect parasites. 

 The larva of the ichneumon Pimpla pomorum feeds on the 

 larva and pupa of the weevil in the capped blossom, and in 

 this way very many are destroyed. Dr. Imms, of the Rotham- 

 sted Experimental Station, has shown that in an orchard in 

 Cambridgeshire over 25 per cent, of the weevils were killed by 

 this ichneumon. 



