COLEOPTBKA OR BEETLES. 



155 



The Apple-blossom Weevil (Anthonomus pomorum). 



This weevil is a serious apple pest in the midland, southern, 

 and south-eastern counties, but occurs in many other parts. 

 The adult beetle, which is reddish-grey, with a V-shaped pale 

 mark on the elytra and with a longish curved proboscis, is 

 about one-fourth of an inch in length. They hibernate in the 

 adult condition under the bark of apple and other trees, &c.. 



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Fig. 72. — Apple-blossom Weevil (Anthonomus pomorum). 

 i, Larva ; ii, adult ; iii, pupa. 



coming out in the spring about the time the blossom-buds are 

 commencing to expand. The female then bores a hole into 

 the expanding bud by means of her rostrum, which has a pair 

 of sharp biting mandibles at the tip, and then deposits an egg 

 or eggs in the hole she has formed. The maggots hatched from 

 the ova remain feeding in the blossoms, which do not open 

 (fig. 73, ii), and which soon become brown and withered, and 

 readily shake off and fall to the ground, so called "Capped" 

 blossom. Pupation takes place in the dead blossom, the weevil 

 eating its way out when mature. Usually the blossoms do not 



