Florida. It is found commonly on black huckleberry and the flowers of chokeberry. 

 The grubs work in the flower buds of swamp blueberry, sometimes doing much 

 harm where this is cultivated. 



Character of Injury 



In the spring the beetles occasionally drill holes in the under side of the old 

 leaves (fig. 46) and in the dormant buds. They turn their attention to the 

 new growth as it develops, drilling into the new leaves and the growing blos- 

 som buds freely (fig. 47) and often eating the stamens. New shoots often are 

 killed by this feeding, turning dark as if frosted or breaking over where the 

 stem has been punctured. 



The grub devours the pistil and stamens of the flower bud, leaving the ex- 

 cavated ovary (fig. 48) together with the unopened corolla (fig. 49) a mere 

 shell^l. If this is opened it usually is found to contain either the grub or pupa 

 and some fine brown castings. 



Many of the infested buds fall to the ground (fig. 50), some before the egg 

 hatches. The cause is not known, but probably the beetle partly severs the 

 pedicel somehoAW; when it lays the egg. A few of the buds fall because the 

 grubs eat therrb'oif from within. Buds that show they are partly cut off by 

 shaking freely when the vines are disturbed indicate surely the presence of 

 this pest. 



The beetles of the new brood appear while the berries are small and feed 

 voraciously on them (figs. 51, 52 and 53) and on the more tender foliage for 

 about three weeks, riddling both with holes. Some of their work on the backs 

 of the leaves at this time is very characteristic (fig. 54). This feeding de- 

 creases as the season advances and finally they only nibble the leaves occa- 

 sionally, doing this till into September. 



Where abundant, this insect often destroys the entire prospective crop by 

 its work in the blossom buds, and the newly emerged beetles sometimes ruin 

 most of the small berries and by killing the tips of the uprights make a crop 

 the next year impossible. 



Description and Seasonal History 



THE BEETLE 



The beetle (fig. 55) is about a sixteenth of an inch long. It has a slightly 

 curved snout about a third as long as the rest of the body. This bears a 

 geniculate feeler on each side beyond the middle and small jaws at the end. 

 The wing covers are ornamented lengthwise with rows of little pits. Narrow 

 white scales noticeable only under a microscope are scattered over the body 

 and legs and often form transverse patches on the wing covers. When the 

 beetle emerges from the pupa it is light brown, with the head and snout deep 

 reddish brown and the eyes black. It changes to its normal color within two 

 or three weeks, then being blackish with the wing covers, the legs, and the under 

 side of the abdomen mostly deep reddish. 



There is one brood a year. The insect passes the late summer, fall, winter, 

 and spring as a beetle and can live under the winter flood. In the fall and 

 spring the beetles hide in the trash under the vines or burrow a little in the 

 sand on cold windy days, coming out only in warm sunny weather. When active 

 they are easily swept from the vines with an insect net, fifty sweeps sometimes 

 gathering over five hundred of them late in July and early in August. When 

 disturbed they either drop to the ground and play possum or fly off a few feet. 

 They start mating toward the first of June. 



61 The lobes of the corolla of an infested bud always remain closed tightly together 

 and become dry and rigid in that position, a protective cell thus being formed for the insect. 



[58] 



