THE OSIER WEEVIL. 33 



PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



It has been shown, in this and other countries, that forest clearings 

 are particularly favourable harbouring spots for this beetle. It is 

 therefore most important that all useless material should be burnt, and 

 the felling area moved from time to time. 



Whatever can afford a breeding place, unless employed as traps, 

 should be cleared away, such, for instance, as waste timber of any 

 description, broken bark, small fragments of wood, pieces of roots left 

 in the ground, dying trees, etc., etc. 



Log Traps placed in June are useful. Pieces of pine or spruce, 

 3 or 4 feet long, and 3 or 4 inches thick, should be cut and so buried 

 in the ground that they protrude two or three inches above the surface. 

 Such traps should be placed from 40 to 50 feet apart, and carefully 

 taken up and burnt in September. 



Feeding sheep in the clearings is recommended, as their droppings 

 are obnoxious to the beetles. 



THE OSIER WEEVIL. 

 Cryptorhynchus lapathi, Linn. 



Both the larvae and adult beetles have been received from different 

 correspondents, with complaints of their injury to osiers and willows. 



LIFE- HISTORY. 



The female lays her eggs in small holes which she bites in the rods, 

 a single egg being placed in each hole. In from 18 to 21 days the 

 larvae hatch out as small whitish grubs, and immediately commence and 

 burrow round the rod. In some cases this burrow encircles the rod, in 

 others it extends only part way around ; whilst occasionally it is irregular, 

 passing slightly upwards or downwards. In all cases the larva ultimately 

 tunnels inwards to the pith, where it clears a chamber, which usually 

 extends for four or five inches and sometimes even more. This central 

 chamber is connected with the exterior by a less carefully formed 

 tunnel, and through the opening of this latter the bits of gnawed wood, 

 etc., are passed out. 



When full fed, the larva measures about one third of an inch in 

 length, and early in August it pupates, the beetles hatching out towards 

 the end of that month, or early in September. During the winter the 

 beetles hibernate in the stools, in the chambers formed by the larvae, 

 and amongst rubbish. 



REMEDIAL MEASURES. 



The same as employed for Willow Beetles, which see. 



WILLOW BEETLES. 



Three species of beetles, known as common pests to osiers and 

 willows, were forwarded by a Warwickshire correspondent ; these were 



