DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



209 



and also the spores of some serious fungous diseases. On 

 small areas it is practicable to crush by hand the insects in 

 the rolled leaves. 



The Strawberry Weevil {Anthonomus signatus) is a little 

 snout-beetle, measuring only a tenth of an inch in length (Fig. 

 277), which deposits an egg in a strawberry bud and then 

 punctures or cuts the stem below it (Fig. 278) in such a way 

 that in a few days the bud drops to the ground. Within the 

 severed bud the grub hatched from the egg develops and 

 transforms to a pupa, and soon to the beetle, which hibernates. 



Fig. 277.— Strawberry 

 Weevil. 



Fig. 278.— a, *, Strawberry spray, showing work 

 in bud and stem, natural size ; d, larva ; /, 

 pupa ; rf,/, much enlarged. (U. S. Div. o£ En. 

 tomology.) 



The beetles often feed upon the pollen and petals of the flowers, 

 but the insect never attacks the fruit or foliage. 



This pest is widely distributed throughout the Eastern 

 United States; Maryland and Virginia strawberry-growers 

 have suffered severely, half the crop in the former State being 

 destroyed in 1896, it is estimated. The insect restricts its 

 work to the staminate varieties and to the pistillates which 

 furnish a considerable quantity of pollen. It also attacks the 

 buds of the wild strawberry, the blackberry, and the red-bud 

 tree. 



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