24 



' On6 raceme^ upon which twelve adults were' observed feeding and 

 ovijiositirig, was found tc contain thirty buds, twenty-five of which had 

 been punctured in sixty-three separate places. The highest number of 

 punctures in any one bud was seven. From thirty of these wourids a 

 viscid, gummy substance Was exuding. About fifty stung buds were 

 cdllected'from the' ground arid placed in a glass jar on May 26th, and 

 on June 5th twenty adult curcuhos, one pupa and four larvae were taken 

 out, and on June 11th seven more adults were removed. Specimens 

 reared in this jar were identified as A. nigrum by Dr. A. D. Hopkins, 

 of the United States Bureau of Entomology. 



The trees were again visited on September 18th, and although they 

 had been full of bloom in May, diligent searching failed to reveal a single- 

 seed pod that had matured, so thorough had been the work of the insects. 



A female was observed ovipositing in the unopened buds of the black 

 locust at Columbus, Ohio, May 15th, 1905, and on May 27th several 

 fallen buds were collected, each of which contained a small larva of this 

 insect. In each of these buds the larva had eaten through the walls of 

 the ovulary, thus eflfectually preventing fertilization even if the bud should 

 develop, which it did not do. 



At McArthur, Vinton county, the cuculios were not as plentiful as 

 at Marietta, but one or two were found on nearly every black locust 

 tree. On June 2d a female was observed busily engaged in drilling a 

 hole in the gall-like, rolled up edge of a locust leaf, probably proauced 

 by the yellow locust midge (Cecidomyia robiniae), and after a little wait- 

 ing the writer was rewarded by witnessing the oviposition of an egg 

 in the hole thus made. This leaf was collected and preserved, but the 

 t^g failed to hatch. 



Mr. O. H. Swezey reports having found the nearly full grown larvae 

 of this beetle in similarly rolled up leaves of the black locust at East 

 Cleveland, and further says "they were in a sort of cocoon." which was 

 not the case with those developing in thelociist buds at Marietta. He 

 collected a few leaves containing the larvae, and "on July 6th two adult 

 beetles appeared." It is hardly probable that this was a second brood 

 of this insect; because the seasonal differences between the southern and 

 northern portions of the state should account for about one-half of the 

 month's time between the appeara-nce of the adults at Marietta and East 

 Qeveland. The other two weeks may easily be accounted for in the 

 straggling of the brood, which is often noticed even in insects that appear 

 distinctly in broods. 



This curculio occupies a position between those, the larvje of which 

 feed wholly upon the leaves, and those which develop in the seeds. This 

 adaptation to a bud feeding larva is peculiar in that it shows a very re- 

 markable acceleration in the larval development, and one that is somewhat 

 unusual. The entire development, from egg to adult, must be accom- 

 plished within three weeks, and possibly in a shorter time. This mav 



