Insects Injurious to the Apvle. 



107 



to feed upon the leaves of the apple for the rest of the summer 

 months. Some naturalists say they do not eat the leaves but exist 

 upon the adipose tissue stored up in their body. About the middle 

 of the autumn they look about for some shelter in which to hibernate 

 during the winter months, such, for instance, as under the rough 

 bark of the trees, beneath stones and any rubbish on the ground ; 

 from where they will come forth in the following spring ready to 

 attack the blossom again. 



The adult beetle (Fig. 90) is described as follows by Fowler : — 

 " Pitchy-black or fuscous-black with ashy pubescence ; head thickly 

 pubescent with an impression on the forehead ; rostrum long, slender 

 and curved ; antennte long and slender, reddish, dusky at apex ; 

 thorax pitchy, sometimes rufo-piceous at sides, with rather scanty, 

 coarse, white pubescence; scutellum thickly pubescent; elytra 

 pitchy, sometimes 

 pitchy-ferruginous, 

 M'ith alternate bare and 

 white fascia?, the one 

 behind the middle com- 

 posed of whitish pubes- 

 cence being oblique 

 and much the most 

 conspicuous, punctured 

 stria' distinct and rather 

 strong, interstices very 

 closely punctured ; legs 

 more or less pitchy, 

 but variable in colour ; 



femora always more or less dusky, anterior pair with very strong 

 tooth, intermediate and posterior with much smaller teeth ; length, 

 3 to 4 mm. (about -J to \ inch)." 



Eoughly speaking we can recognise this Blossom AVeevil by the 

 pale V-shaped mark on the wing cases. 



The attack of this beetle may be told first of all by the presence 

 of the beetle itself in the early spring upon the apple branches ; 

 a good jarring will soon cause them to fall off and show their 

 presence. The surest sign is the scorched appearance of some 

 of the iiowers and their often failing to open, whilst other 

 blossoms are fully expanded. The larvte are unable to live in an 

 opened bud, hence in fine weather, when the blossoms expand 

 rapidly, many of the young larv?e die before they have damaged 

 the bud, and in many cases the blossoms may expand before even 



FIG. 91. — APPLE BLOSSOM WEEVIL (natural size and magnified) 



AND "CAPPED" BLOSSOM, SHOWING EXIT HOLE AT A. 



