6i 



They hibernate under the covering which protected the eggs, and 

 emerge when the leaves expand. 



They burrow into the leaves, living concealed until late spring 

 or early summer, when they eat their way out, and begin to feed on 

 the surface of the leaf ; they then collect together and build their 

 web-nests. 



Insecticides. The same as for the lackey moth, that is : 



To prune off twigs having the eggs on. 



To take the web-nests and put them into some strong insecticide. 



To keep the ground round about free from weeds and rubbish. 



8. THE APPLE BLOSSOM WEEVIL, Anthonomus pomorum. ORDER 



COLEOPTERA. 



This insect also attacks the pear tree. 



This pest gives a result that used to cause many fruit-growers 

 to put the attack down to white frosts, but on examining an infected 

 blossom the little white larvae are to be seen in the centre of the 

 flowers destroying their power of fructification, the flowers easily 

 dropping when the tree is shaken. 



The weevil is about one quarter by one eighth of an inch in length 

 and breadth, being of a black colour. 



The wing-cases or elytra have alternate bare and pubescent grey 

 lines, and when closed a characteristic V-shaped mark is to be seen. 



The legs are almost black ; the thighs of the first pair are large 

 and each is furnished with a tooth, and the middle and hind pair also 

 have a tooth but smaller, the feet being of a very dark red colour. 



The rostrum is half as long as its body, slightly curved, and 

 bearing the antennae, which end in oval four-jointed clubs. 



The eggs are yellowish and oval. 



The larva is about one third of an inch long and legless, having 

 a brown head with two little brown spots on the first segment. 



When adult it is wrinkled and creamy white. 



The pupa is nearly one quarter of an inch long, of a pale yellow 

 colour, with a long rostrum, and the legs folded on the under side of 

 the body. 



The female bores a hole in the flower in the spring, puts one egg 

 within each blossom bud, and closes up the hole. 



The female lays from fifteen to fifty eggs, putting only one in each 

 blossom, always depositing her eggs in the flower buds and never in an 

 open flower. 



The larvae emerge in about ten days, and eat the carpels and the 

 stamens, causing the flower buds to die and drop off. 



The larvae turn into pupae in eight to twenty days, in which state 

 they last from seven to ten days, when the weevil appears and escapes 

 by a hole made in the petals. 



The weevils are said not to eat, but live upon a store of fat stored 

 up in their bodies during the larval stage. 



