Report of the State Entomologist 271 



dried beans, in that some early matured varieties that had been 

 placed in bottles with loose corks early in September, when again 

 examined in January, 1890, were found to contain " larvae of all sizes, 

 pupse, and adult weevils, as well as the empty cells whence adults had 

 escaped earlier."* 



The Fact of Successive Broods Established. 



The question raised as above, of the ability of the bean-weevil to 

 produce, not only a second generation from the beans in which the 

 first was developed, but also successive broods limited only by the 

 food- supply, has been satisfactorily determined in the affirmative from 

 observations made by me during the past summer. 



Oviposition. — A number of the beetles were sent to me September 

 4th by Dr. H. C. Coon, of Alfred University, Alfred Centre, N. Y., 

 for name, etc. When received they were alive and active, and had 

 deposited a number of eggs upon the side of the phial in which they 

 were inclosed. The following day, for better observation, the beetles 

 were removed to a jar, and furnished with some sound and uninjured 

 beans. It was thought that they might perhaps eat into them for 

 oviposition, but no attempt of the kind was made. Examining them 

 with a magnifier on the 10th of September, quite a number of eggs 

 were found on their surface, sometimes placed singly, but oftener in 

 clusters of three, four, or five. They were white, smooth, narrower 

 at one end (the lower, when attached at an angle), and with a length 

 nearly three times that of their greatest breadth (as 10 to 29 on a 

 scale). Larvae from them were observed on the 17th, traveling 

 incessantly over the smooth surface of the beans. 



The egg-laying was continued — upon the beans only — for a few 

 days longer, and by the 23d the last of the beetles had died. 



The larvce entering the bean. — The larvae were carefully watched with 

 a strong glass, but no effort seemed to be made by them to burrow 

 into the bean. The earliest hatched by degrees became more quiet, 

 then ceasing their travel and dying — their bodies adhering to the 

 surface and assuming a pale yellow hue. As an experiment, the rind 

 of the upper surface of two beans was pierced in several places (six 

 in the one and ten in the other) by revolving upon it the fine point of 

 a knife-blade. The punctures were very soon discovered by the larvae, 

 and they at once commenced to burrow into them. By the following 

 day each puncture had been appropriated by a larva which was 

 actively engaged in boring its way slowly into the hard substance — 

 about a day being required to remove itself entirely from sight. The 



* In Second Ann. Report of the Kansas State Agricultural JExperiment Station for 1889 

 1890, pp. 208-9. 



