U. S. D. A., B. E. Bui. 85, Part I (Revised). C. F. I. I., April 3, 1911. 



PAPERS ON CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



THE LESSER CLOVER-LEAF WEEVIL. 



(Phytonomus nigrirostris Fab.) 



By F. M. Webster, 

 In Charge of Cereal and Forage Insect Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The lesser clover-leaf weevil is one of the common, generally dif- 

 fused insects of Europe, being found from Scandinavia southward 

 into Egypt and Asia Minor, although the voluminous classical 

 reports of Miss Ormerod give no intimation of its presence in the 

 British Islands. 



The technical literature of the species runs back into the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century. Judging from accounts by the 

 more recent European writers, its habits and development in the 

 Old World do not differ materially from those as observed in America. 



Mathieu a says: "It is common, and spread all over the fields and 

 plains, especially on the trefoils." 



Thomson b says that it is "not rare on high meadows all over 

 Sweden.' ' 



Capiomont c informs us that "it is spread over the north and 

 middle of Europe; also in Algeria, in Egypt, and Anatolie in Asia 

 Minor. It lives on different species of Ononis, and especially on 

 Ononis spinosa. The cocoon that the larva makes on the leaves of 

 these plants is altogether similar in texture to that of Hypera tessellata, 

 but it is a little smaller and more ovoid." 



Kaltenbach d says with reference to this species that it "was 

 found by F. Hoffman on BupJitJiahnum salicifolium, in the flower 

 heads of which the larvae live. The transformation takes place in a 

 cocoon built from chaff leaves [p. 332]. 



"The larva? live in the florets of the flower head of Trifolium pra- 

 tense, wherein I have repeatedly taken the beetles [p. 124]." 



Piero Bargagli e states that "in the vicinity of Florence it winters 

 among the moss and under the bark of the alder in the perfect state; 



« Annales de la Societe Entomologique de Beige. Catalogue des Coleopteres de 

 la Famille des Curculionidees de Belgique, p. 189, 1858. 

 & Skandinaviens Coleoptera, p. 173, 1865. 



c Annales de la Societe Entomologique de France, vol. 8, p. 227,1868. 

 d Pflanzenfeinde aus der Klasse der Insekten, pp. 124, 332, 1874. 

 «Rassegna Biologica di Rincofori Europei, p. 95, 1883-84. 



