80 



ing the husks from the seeds he was planting and had not noticed 

 the presence of the weevil. He infomied me, however, that for 

 the past eight years for horticultural reasons he had removed 

 the husks from all seeds he planted but that because of a short- 

 age of labor he had not done so for the two previous years. It 

 is reasonable to suppose from this that the weevil made its ad- 

 vent into the Moanalua Gardens not earlier than 1903. Inquiry 

 of Mr. David Haughs, Mr. Higgins and Mr. G. P. Wilder brought 

 out the information that the weevil had not 'up to that time oc- 

 curred in Honolulu. All had planted seeds from year to year 

 and Mr. Haughs in his connection with the Territorial Nursery 

 had planted mango seeds for many years and practised removing 

 the husks from them before doing so. The distribution last year, 

 then, so far as is known, was confined to this Island and extended 

 from Kalihi to Moanalua. 



On July 11th, specimens of the weevil were forwarded to the 

 United States Bureau of Entomology at Washington for deter- 

 mination. Under date of July 26th, Mr. E. A. Schwarz of the 

 Bureau reported it as Cryptorhynchus mangijerae originally de- 

 scribed by Fabricius in 1774. 



Larvae, pupae and adults were to be found in the seeds of 

 the fruit all through July. During August, the seeds of fallen 

 mangoes contained some pupae and many adults. As late as 

 Sept. 11th, seeds beneath trees in the infested district contained 

 adults but in no great numbers. It appeared that the weevils 

 remained in the seeds for a time after completing their full 

 development. On the last date mentioned three living adtilts 

 were removed from as many seeds and placed in tightly corked 

 phials beneath a plug of cotton. On Oct. 13th, all these speci- 

 mens were living. I was absent from my office nearly a month 

 but on my return, Nov. 15th, one weevil had died. On January 

 3rd, another weevil failed to show signs of life and the third speci- 

 men lived until February 10. From these observations I vv'as 

 convinced that the insect could pass a considerable period in a 

 dormant state, a necessary power if it proved to be a special 

 feeder of the mango seed. Qn the same date as the above ex- 

 periment was begun, a quantity of the seeds from fallen mangoes 

 from the infested district was placed in a breeding cage to 

 determine the latest date the adults would continue to leave 



