-'3 



the unopened buds, because the beetle does not cat much of the tough 

 outer bud scales. The habit is to eat a hole in the bud-covering lart 

 enough to admit the body, then hollow out the bud, eating the tender 

 tissues back to the mature wood of the previous season's growth 



Their habit of jumping when disturbed would suggest jarring them 

 on to a cloth coated with some sticky substance, or one saturated with 

 oil, when they attack small fruit trees, but would not be advisable for 

 locust trees under forest conditions. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1889, Riley and Howard, Insect Life, 1 : 280. 



1892, Chittenden, Proc. Ent. Soc. Wash., 2:266. 



1893, Riley, Ann. Rept. U. S. Dept. Agri., pp. 207-208. 

 1893, Riley and Howard, Insect Life, 5 : 334-342. 



1893, Hopkins, Bui. 32, W. Va. Agri. Exp. Sta., p. 201, No. 197. 



1895, Chittenden, Insect Life, 7 : 384-385. 



1905, Burgess, Bui. 52, Bur. Ent. U. S. Dept. Agri., p. 53. 



THE LOCUST BUD WEEVIL. 

 Apion nigrum Hbst. 

 Order Coleoptera; Family Curculionidae. 



It has long been known that the adults of A. nigrum feed upon the 

 black locust, eating holes in the leaves, and it has been supposed that the 

 larvae, as the larvje of nearly related species, "develop within the seeds 

 of the tree." (Insect Life, 5:338). However, the seeds of the black 

 locust are but little larger than the adult curculio, so that this could hardlv 

 be true, and some observations made during the summer of 1904 disprove 

 this supposition. 



\t Marietta, :\Iay 22d, 1904, the writer found the adults of A. ni- 

 grum working upon the unopened flower buds of the black locust trees 

 near that city. On closer observation it was noted that the females were 

 puncturing the buds and ovipositing in the holes thus made. On a sec- 

 ond visit to this locality, on Way 26th, the insects were as numerous as. 

 before, and it was noted that many of the buds had ceased to develop 

 and were falling to the ground, where they remained fresh for some time. 

 An examination showed that nearly all of the prematurely falling buds, 

 had been punctured in one or more places, and upon opening them all. 

 stages of the insect were found, i. e., eggs, larvae, pupae and adults. 

 Usually only one stage of the insect was found in a single bud, and nor- 

 mallv but one larva develops in a given bud, yet there may be two or 

 more. From some of these buds the adults had emerged by eating a 

 round hole, generally through the base of the bud, but some ate their 

 way out at about two-thirds of the distance to the tip. 



