I02 



INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETABLES 



Fig. 58.— Common bean weevil. 

 Greatly enlarged. (Author's 

 illustration. U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



without injury to the germinative property of the seed. A 

 similar remedy consists in soaking infested seed for one minute 

 in boiling water. A longer time is apt to injure it for planting. 



No efficient preventive of in- 

 jury is known, but cooperation 

 in the treatment of infested seed 

 would render further action un- 

 necessary. 



The Common Bean Weevil 

 (Bruchus obtectus Say). — The 

 most formidable enemy to the 

 culture of beans is the common 

 bean weevil. In the nature of 

 its attack it differs from the 

 pea weevil in that it not only 

 develops in the pods in the field 

 but continues to breed for suc- 

 cessive generations in seed, after harvest and storage, until the 

 seed is useless for planting or as food for man or stock. 



As with peas, the market gardens of the North provide the 

 dry seed for consumption and for planting in the Southern 

 States. In and about Washington, D. C, it is next to impos- 

 sible to procure a crop of beans uninfested by this weevil; 

 hence, the stores of the city are supplied mainly from the North, 

 New York State furnishing the greatest quantities. 



This bean weevil is smaller than the preceding, averaging 

 about an eighth of an inch in length. It is coated with fine 

 brown-gray and olive pubescence which gives the body that col- 

 or. The wing-covers are mottled, as shown in figures 58 and 60. 

 From the pea weevil this species may be known by the different 

 shaped thorax and the two small teeth in addition to the large 

 tooth with which the thighs are armed. In figure 60, a, the beetle 

 is represented in profile with its head bent under in natural 



