112 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Mar., 'll 



Notes on Tyloderma foveolatum (Say) (Col.)- 



By a. a. Girault, Urbana, Illinois. 



On June i, 1909, at Centralia, Illinois, along a fence around 

 a meadow on a farm there were found in a tangle of weeds an 

 occasional clump of evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L. ). 

 every plant in which had been attacked by this common weevil. 

 Eggs were then very abundant ; thus on a random plant sixty- 

 seven egg-scars were counted. The eggs have the following 

 characters : 



Length, 0.80 mm. ; width, 0.65 mm. Short-oval to oval ; surface cov- 

 ered with a greyish, deciduous substance not unlike a coating of thin 

 sugar and which is opaque and without sculpture. When this is rub- 

 bed oflF, the surface of the egg is polished ^^ellow. with no marked 

 sculpture but slightly coriarious or like the surface of some leathers. 

 Soft, pliable, easih- crushed. Inconspicuous. General color greyish 

 yellow; when seen in its natural position, the upper side (and also 

 the lower) is slightly flattened. Deposited singly. When examined 

 with transmitted light, the egg is liquid yellow or amber, opaque cen- 

 trally; this color persists until hatching. The pruinose coating is eas- 

 ily removed by gently rolling the eggs between the fingers. The micro- 

 pyle is not conspicuous. 



Several females were observed laying eggs ; the manner 

 of doing this is extremely interesting. In the cases observ'ed 

 the males were not present. The mother weevil faces toward 

 the top of the plant and takes a firm hold. She then proceeds 

 to eat out of the stem of the plant a quadrate or oval cavity, 

 making it about a half of a millimeter deep. When this is 

 completed, she turns about, fits the end of the abdomen into 

 the cavity and places an egg. Then assuming her former po- 

 .sition by turning about, she advances, breaks the skin of the 

 plant with her beak and peels a short strip of it down to the 

 cavity and tucks it over the egg: this is repeated a number of 

 times. Then she commences to peel off in the same manner 

 longer strips from above and to one side of the cavity ; these 

 longer strips are peeled down as far as the bottom end of the 

 egg cavity, bent over it and packed with the beak around the 

 egg. Finally, she turns about, after crossing over the nidus. 



