428 Insect Pests. 



THE RED-LEGGED WEEVIL. 



{Otiorhynckiis tenebricosus. Herbst.) 



This large and conspicuous beetle (Fig. 280-1) is found on all fruit 

 trees, and has been reported on raspberries and plums as very injurious 

 (7). It suddenly appears in large numbers. Besides fruit trees 

 it occurs in moss at the roots of grass, according to Canon. Fowler 

 (6), who also states that it may often be taken by beating whitethorn 

 hedges. Not only the adults but the larvae also do damage to the 

 raspberry, feeding upon the roots in the stock (7). I have no 

 record of the beetles attacking raspberry outside the county of 

 Kent. In 1899 I found it in numbers amongst the raspberries 

 on Wye College farm, and in a private garden in the neighbourhood, 

 having spread in the latter to the raspberries from some neigh- 

 bouring plum trees which had been quite defoliated by the beetles. 

 Another year, 1901, I found them attacking the buds early in the 

 year and even biting the shoots and completely destroying the 

 tender leaves. It thus appears that it may at any time attack 

 raspberries as well as plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots. 

 They may frequently be found sheltering at the foot of wooden 

 posts amongst grass and rough herbage. I have also beaten them 

 ia numbers from beech trees which they were defoliating near Wye 

 in 1905, and also from hawthorn in the same year. It occurs all 

 over Britain. 



Life-History. 



The beetle is J inch long In colour it is black and shiny, 

 thorax narrow, rounded, and slightly dilated at the sides ; tlie short 

 blunt rostrum has a ridge in the middle, the long, slender, elbowed 

 antennae are black; the ovate elytra are pointed at the apex, and 

 have in fresh specimens patches of dull ashy pubescence and 

 punctured strite, most easily seen in worn or old specimens, the 

 spaces between are shagreened ; the legs are dull reddish, and long ; 

 the femora not toothed. The male is narrower than the female, 

 with the anal segment of the abdomen strongly striated. The female 

 has the anal segment of the abdomen punctured, but rather obscurely. 

 The beetles appear in May and June and feed upon the young shoots, 

 buds, and later the leaves of the raspberries. Like the preceding 

 species they are nocturnal, hiding away during the day under clods 

 of earth around the stocks and even under the leaves low down 

 amongst the canes. 



They deposit their eggs in the ground in the summer and the 



