270 BUSE-FBUITS 



promptly. For if it be delayed till autumn, the larvse will have 

 penetrated the roots and will then be beyond the reach of the 

 pruning shears." 



The Strawberry Weevil (Fig. 41) 



Anthonomiis signatus, Say. — Order Coleoptera: Family 

 Curculionidae 



Chittenden, Ins. Life, 5: 167. 

 Hamilton, Can. Ent. 24: 41. 

 Anthonomus musculus. Say. 



Ritey, Rep. IT. S. Dept. Agr. 1885: 276. 

 Fletcher, Rep. Can. Exp. Farms, 1890: 178. 

 Beckwith, Bull. Del. Exp. Sta. 18. 



This insect, which was first noticed as injurious to the straw- 

 berry in 1871, is at the present time coming to be a most serious 

 pest, not only to strawberries, but to blackberries as well. It is a 

 small curculio, or snout-beetle, about one-tenth of an inch long, 

 with black head and convex shining wing-covers variable in color. 

 Its injury to strawberries has been so great that a series of special 

 investigations were carried on during the season of 1892 by F. H. 

 Chittenden, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, the results of 

 which appear in Insect Life, Vol. V, p. 167, which is freely quoted 

 here. The principal damage is done by the adult beetles punctur- 

 ing the pedicel or flower- stem a short distance below the flower- 

 buds. Concerning its work on blackberries, Mr. Chittenden says: 

 "A blackberry patch at Falls Church, of the variety known as 

 Early Harvest, was visited June 3, and although the bushes were 

 covered with white blossoms, betokening, un- 

 der normal conditions, a rich crop of berries, 

 it was soon seen that the insect had been at 

 Fig. 41. Weevil. work, but not in the same uniform manner 

 Anthonomus signatus. as on the strawberry, some plants being 

 noticeably more injured than others. An esti- 

 mate of the total damage done to the patch is about 20 per cent. 

 Badly damaged sprays selected at random showed an average of 



