172 INJURIOUS INSECTS 



ground, burrowing just beneath the bark, and when very 

 numerous leaving little else than the outer bark. The 

 beetles do this work in the fall of the year. The young 

 larva hatches and works a short distance into the twig 

 before winter sets in, and continues working through 

 spring and summer, transforming to pupa only towards 

 autumn. Some writers have stated that two years are 

 required for its development. While this may be true 

 farther north it is not true of the latitude of St. Louis. 

 The Insect has been found destructive in Pennsylvania, 

 Indiana, and other Western States. "Wherever its prun- 

 ings are found, they should be gathered and burned. 



NEW YORK WEEVIL. 

 (Ithyeerus Noveboracensis, Forster.) 



This large snout-beetle kills the twigs by gnawing off 

 the tender bark, in the early part of the season before the 

 buds have put out, and later in the year it destroys the 

 tender shoots which start out from old wood, by entirely 

 devouring them. It attacks, by preference, the tender 

 growth of the Apple, though it will also make free with 

 that of the Peach, Plum, and Pear, and probably of other 

 fruit as well as of forest trees. 



This beetle belongs to the same family as does the 

 Plum Curculio; it is distinguished from most of the 

 other snout-beetles by the antennae or horns being 

 straight instead of elbowed or flail-shaped as they are in 

 the common Plum Curculio, for instance. The specific 

 name Noveboracensis which means " of New York" was 

 given to this beetle ninety-eight years ago, by Forster, 

 doubtless because he received his specimens from New 

 York. But like many other insects which have been 

 honored with the name of some Eastern State, it is far 

 more common in the Mississippi Valley than it is in the 



