THE GRAPE CUECULIO. 13 



THE PUPA PERIOD. 



Small lots of larvae which had just issued from grapes were placed in 

 jars containing earth on August 1 and 2, 1917. From these larva? 46 

 beetles developed, of which 37 emerged on the eighteenth day and 

 9 on the nineteenth day. This and other observations indicate that 

 in the warmer part of the summer the beetles issue, on an average, 

 about 18 days after the construction of the cocoon. The larva? that 

 leave the grapes late in August and in September pupate and remain 

 within the cocoon until the spring following, when they issue as beetles 

 at about the time the wintering beetles are emerging from hiber- 

 nation. 



THE BEETLES IN THE FALL. 



The young beetles that appear late in summer spend all the re- 

 maining warm days of the season on the grape foliage. They feed 

 rather freely and can be distinguished very readily from the old 

 beetles which are still on the vines by their fresher appearance and 

 darker color. Many of the beetles that appear from hibernation 

 or from wintering pupa? in the spring live through the entire season 

 and enter hibernation again in the fall. Of the lot of 48 beetles kept 

 in glass tumblers for the purpose of obtaining egg records throughout 

 the summer of 1917, 36 were still alive on October 4. At that time 

 the 36 beetles were placed in a large jar containing dry, decayed wood 

 and soon thereafter they hid away in the wood fragments and became 

 dormant. There is considerable mortality among the beetles soon 

 after they appear upon the vines in the spring, and the probabil- 

 ity is that most of the beetles that die at that time are the individuals 

 that have survived two winters. 



NATURAL ENEMIES. 



PREDACIOUS FORMS. 



At the time the grape curculio larva? leave the grapes and crawl 

 over the ground in search of suitable places to pupate, they fall an 

 easy prey to ants and other enemies. In the summer of 1917 a small 

 red ant, determined by Wheeler as Solenopsis molesta Say, was 

 observed in great numbers feeding on larva? beneath infested grape- 

 vines. Another ant, determined by Wheeler as Aphaenogaster fulva 

 Roger, subspecies aquia Buckley, variety picea Emery, was pres- 

 ent in less numbers and was observed attacking the larva?. A small 

 ground-dwelling spider, as yet undetermined, was seen to pounce 

 upon a curculio larva and was caught as it hurried with its load 

 beneath a stone. The larva of a rove beetle, Philonthus hrunneus 

 Gravenhorst, and the following species of ants are recorded as 

 attacking the curculio larva: Camponotus pennsylvanicus De 



