408 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



in small silken cells on or just below the surface. The moths 

 emerge about eight days later, so that in midsummer the com- 

 plete life cycle occupies about a month. In Texas there are 

 probably five generations a year, and in Nebraska and Illinois 

 three or four generations. 



Control. The plowing of infested land in late fall or winter, 

 or thorough disking of alfalfa will be found to largely control the 

 pest. Where it appears on cultivated crops it may be readily 

 destroyed by at once spraying or dusting with Paris green or 

 arsenate of lead. The destruction of the weeds upon which it 

 feeds is obviously important in preventing the undue multiplica- 

 tion of the pest. 



The Rhubarb Curculio * 



Rhubarb is but little troubled with insect pests, but occasionally 

 the stalks are found with numerous punctures from which the 



FIG. 295. The rhubarb curculio (Lixus concavus Say): a, beetle; b, egg; 

 c, newly hatched larva; d, full grown larva; e, pupa; /, back view of 

 last abdominal segment of pupa all about twice natural size. (After 

 Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



juice exudes. This has been caused by the feeding and oviposi- 

 tion of a large rusty-brown snout-beetle, which is usually 



* Lixus concavus Say. Family Curculionidae. See F. H. Chittenden. 

 Bulletin 23, n. a., Division of Entomology, p. 61. 



