AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 171 



We hope the farmers whose fields are infested will try some of 

 these measures. There is one consolation and that is the life his- 

 tory of this pest is completed in three yeais and it would not 

 probably lay its eggs on the same ground again, but seek some new 

 field of conquest. 



The Bean Weevil. 



Bruchus obtectus, Say. 



Order Coleoptera : Family Bruchidse. 



We received specimens of beans infested by the above insect 

 from Hon. Samuel Libby, Orono. He gives the following interest- 

 ing history regarding them: 'The beans are of the horticultural 

 variety and were gathered in the pods when ripe in September, 

 1891, and taken to my store where they lay until October, 1891. 

 I then sorted out those that had six beans in a pod for seed and 

 also those with five beans in a pod for second choice. The lot 

 having five beans in a pod were put in an open basket in the store. 

 They remained there during the summer of 1892 and about January 

 1, 1893 I had occasion to examine them and found they were 

 infested. About one-tenth of the pods had holes in them and I 

 found fine dust falling from the beans, and saw the holes in them. 

 I also noticed small black objects in the basket. Not knowing 

 that there was a bean weevil that worked on beans as the pea wee- 

 vil does on peas I laid them aside for you. 



The pods having six beans in them were shelled and planted in 

 the spring of 1892 and showed no signs of weevil work. I have 

 grown horticultural beans for twenty years and have always raised 

 my own seed. In 1891, 4, planted beans obtained elsewhere and 

 the beetle might have been introduced with that seed. "The crop 

 of 1892 shows no evidence of weevil work." 



We examined the specimens submitted and found them to be 

 Bruchus obtectus, Say. The beans contained eggs ; minute larvae 

 just hatched ; larvae one-third, one- half and full grown; pupa? in 

 various stages of development ; full grown pale colored beetles : 

 some full colored ready to emerge ; others free in the basket alive 

 and some apparently dead. There were as many as twenty indi- 

 viduals in some of the beans. There were numerous holes in some 

 of the beans from which the beetles had escaped, also many oval 



