CHARLOCK WEEVIL. 77 



the same kind which has been observed in the past season on the 

 Mustard, the plant being in some cases "destroyed by the weevil 

 nipping the stem through just below the seed leaves as they were 

 pushing up out of the earth." In another instance (where the first 

 sowing of young Turnips, and then the Charlock, had been cleared by 

 the weevils) resowing " was begun on the 17th of June by passing the 

 Turnip sower over the drills, the ground being clean and mellow ; the 

 plants came up rapidly, and just as they were coming through they 

 were again attacked by the weevils, the leaves being literally blackened 

 by the numbers of the insects, the parts of the field where the Charlock 

 was most abundant during the preceding season being the first to 

 fail before the attack, and being soon cleared ; and from these spots 

 the weevils gradually extended their ravages, and again ruined the 

 crop.'"'' 



The weevils in these attacks did not limit their ravages to damage 

 to the sprouting plant, but if it survived (or chanced to escape) infes- 

 tation up to production of seed-leaves, these were severely injured or 

 destroyed, " the weevil puncturing the leaves partly through, both 

 from above and below, so badly, that on one seed-leaf, taken as an ex- 

 ample of the many," I found, on examination, ''there were twenty-two 

 punctures (not perforations) on the upper side, and about sixteen on 

 the lower." In the ten days preceding the 8th of June it was more 

 injurious even than the Turnip Fly, and hundreds of acres are reported 

 as having been destroyed by it ; dry weather occurring at the time in 

 the district round Earlston (Berwickshire). These were resown with 

 a double quantity of seed, and the insects reappearing, a second 

 clearance was feared ; but a good rain set in, and the plants came 

 away well.f 



The above attacks took place in coincidence with circumstances to 

 check the growth of the young plants, as drought and heat, in one case 

 noted as " intense heat" from the 22nd of May to the 4th of June, 

 this heat being followed by frosty nights, accompanied by cold winds, 

 which checked the plants to a serious extent, and in some instances 

 completely destroyed them. 



The above observations of the injury caused to leafage corresponds 

 with the note given in ' Introduction to Entomology,' by Kirby and 

 Spence, p. 188 of vol. i. of 3rd edition, as to "almost as much damage 

 being sometimes occasioned by a little weevil, Curculio " [ = Ceutorhijn- 

 chiis) " contracttis, which in the same manner pierces a hole in the 

 cuticle," as by the Turnip Flea Beetle. 



* ' Eeport of Observations of Injurious Insects for 1881,' by Eleanor A. Ormerod 

 pp. 103—105. 



t See Keport previously quoted. 



