34 



The Pea and Bean Weevil. (Sitones lineatus.) 



(PLATE VI., Fig. 2.) 



This weevil feeds upon several leguminous plants, and 

 especially upon clover, peas, and beans. It often seriously 

 injures red clover in its early stages, when the plants are 

 struggling along in dry seasons. Its larvae, small white maggots, 

 spoil "second cuts " of clover by eating the roots of the plants, 

 and stopping their growth. Some roots of clover were 

 forwarded this summer, whose tops were dying away, as it was 

 suggested, from clover sickness. Upon examination, the larvse 

 of Sitones lineatus were found in these. It was stated that the 

 crop was reduced by at least one half in consequence of this 

 attack. 



Trifolium suffers considerably from this weevil, particularly in 

 its early stages. The injury which it causes to tritblium, 

 however, is generally attributed to slugs and other insects. 



Peas and beans, too, are very subject to the onslaughts of this 

 insect, and in this case also slugs are usually accused, because -the 

 Sitones are riot by any means easily seen, being very shy, and of 

 a dull colour, and falling to the ground on the least alarm. This 

 weevil eats the leaves and young shoots of the pea and bean plants, 

 and its larvae devour their roots. In the spring of this year 

 complaints were made from many places of damage done to peas, 

 and especially to early peas, by the weevils. Amongst others, 

 Mr. Charles Howard found in a piece of early peas, Sangster's 

 No. 1, which had been drilled on February llth, that the Sitones 

 were eating the plants as fast as they grew, so that a very poor 

 yield was obtained. Other complaints were received from 

 Bedfordshire, Essex, Kent, and Surrey pea growers and market 

 gardeners, as to losses from this cause. In some cases the crops 

 of peas were entirely cleared off, especially upon land that had 

 been stale ploughed. Mr. Howard reported that upon land 

 after barley which had been ploughed before Christmas, only a 

 very few peas were grown, on account of the weevils, while 

 adjoiniug land ploughed in February was comparatively free 

 from them. 



The Sitones were most troublesome in gardens and allotment 

 grounds throughout the summer, and reduced the crops of peas 

 and beans. It was noticed that they attacked sweet peas also. 



DESCRIPTION AND LIFE HISTORY. 



The weevil is a quarter of an inch long. Its ground 

 colour is dark, but the body is covered with greyish scales, which 

 in some specimens are of a slightly greenish shade. There are 

 three lines of this grey, or grey-green, hue on the thorax, and 

 many lines on the wing cases. The antennse are of a red colour, 

 very slender, with club terminations. The legs are ferruginous. 

 As Canon Fowler says, " the tibise of the male are curved, and 



