192 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



years in infested localities. No injury seems to be done in pas- 

 tures. A system of rotation in which the crop is mowed for hay 

 and seed the first year, and pastured and then broken up the 

 second year, should keep the pest under control. 



An insect very similar in life-history and nature of injury is 

 the Clover-root Curculio.* This insect is also a snout beetle 

 but belongs to a different family. In spite of this, the adults 

 and larvae will both probably be confused by the ordinary 

 observer. The curculio ,has been observed working on alfalfa.f 



The Clover Leaf-weevil J 



The clover leaf-weevil is a stout, oval beetle, about one-third 

 inch long, with a long, thick snout. It is of a brownish color, 

 with several narrow gray lines above and broad gray stripes 

 on each side, and with twenty rows of small, deep punctures 

 on the wing-covers. It also is a native of Europe and made its 

 first appearance in the same section of western New York as the 

 last species, about 1881. Since then it has spread eastward to 

 Rhode Island and Vermont, southward to North Carolina and 

 West Virginia and westward to Wisconsin and Illinois. Every 

 few years the weevils and their larvae destroy much of the foliage 

 in restricted localities, but rarely are they very injurious the next 

 season. Red clover, alfalfa, and white clover are preferred in the 

 order named; in Illinois the mammoth and alsike are also eaten. 



Life Hitsory. In early fall the female beetles lay their eggs 

 in crevices among the stems near the base of the plant, which 

 hatch in from three to six weeks. The young larvae which hatch 

 from them are without legs, but manage to climb by means of 

 the prominent tubercles on the lower surface of the body. They 

 are light yellowish-green, becoming deeper green as they grow 

 older, the head is brown, and down the middle of the back is 

 a white or pale yellow stripe bordered with reddish. The larvae 

 become partially grown before winter sets in, when they hiber- 

 nate in rubbish or just under the soil until spring, when they 

 continue to feed upon the foliage and become full-grown in May 

 and early June. They feed mostly at night and are hardly 



* Sitones hispidulis Fabricius. Family Curculionida. 



t See F: M. Webster, Farmers' Bulletin 649, U. S. Dept. of Agr. 



% Phytonomus punctatus Fab. Family Curculionidae. 



