183 



was found with a live, adult larger chestnut weevil impaled 

 on its beak, which it soon killed. , 



Perhaps the most important enemy of 'these snout beetles, 

 especially of the nut weevils, is the short-tailed shrew, a little, 

 insectivorous mammal that lives in the ground. These little 

 shrews are not often seen but they are exceedingly abundant, 

 especially in woods and in shady and weedy places in fields. 

 They are very fond of the fat, juicy grubs of the snout beetles, 

 and while these grubs are in the ground undergoing transfor- 

 mation or hiding for the winter; they are found by shrews and 

 devoured by thousands. In the ground beneath nut-bearing 

 trees a labyrinth of burrows will be found frequently that have 

 been made by the shrews in their search for insects. In such 

 places not more than 10 per cent of the larvae that enter the 

 ground in the fall can be found the following spring. That the 

 shrews are chiefly responsible for their disappearance is shown 

 by the numbers of the mammals that can be trapped in such 

 places and by their fondness of the larvae when in captivity. 

 It has been found that a shrew in 24 hours will eat a quantity 

 of the larvae greater in weight than that of its own body. On 

 one occasion, I saw a shrew devour 70 large "chestnut worms" 

 within a space of five minutes. 



For further notes on this feeding habit of the shrews, see 

 Bulletin 113, W. Va. Agr. Expt. Station. 



METHODS OF CONTROL. 



This is a difficult group of insects to deal with so far as 

 remedial measures are concerned. The internal feeding habits 

 of the larvae, and to a great extent of the adults also, together 

 with the fact that most of the activities of the more injurious 

 species are carried on in the tops of large trees, places them be- 

 yond the reach of our ordinary insecticides. 



All the species, being native to this country and having 

 their wild food plants, propagate their kind in the woods and 

 furnish from that source an abundant supply of recruits to 



