26 



ESTIMATES OE LOSSES. 



A fair . estimate of the total damage done annually by weevils to 

 chestnuts grown for market in all portions of the United States 

 would probably fall little short of 20 or 25 per cent, while in some 

 years the percentage would exceed that, running as high as 10 or 50 

 per cent. "Growers in some localities report no damage, others place 

 their loss as low as 5 or 10 per cent, while instances are cited of whole 

 crops being destroyed. A loss of 10 per cent, as with many other 

 crops, although existent, is frequently passed over unnoticed. The 

 amount of loss is dependent on locality, season, and to a certain extent 

 perhaps on the variety of chestnuts grown. The greatest damage is 

 usually incurred in regions where chestnuts have grown wild for many 

 years, and the least in localities where there are no wild chestnuts or 

 chinquapins and the nuts are grown only for market and carefully 

 gathered. The greatest damage, from available sources of informa- 

 tion, appears to be done in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 

 New York (in the vicinity of New York City), Delaware, Maryland, 

 Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. 



In Georgia Spanish and Japanese varieties have been cultivated for 

 years without attack by weevils being noticed. In New Jersey 50 per 

 cent of the same varieties have been ruined. One grower in Missouri 

 has reported no damage to 50 trees of an American variety about 18 

 years old, while another, at South Haven, Mich., has reported no 

 injury for a period of three or four years to Japanese and Spanish 

 chestnuts grown there, while from 5 to 20 per cent of the crop of native 

 chestnuts was annually destroyed. The same correspondent reports 

 having received 1 pounds of chinquapins from Tennessee, all infested. 

 A Delaware grower has reported every nut on a single tree completely 

 destroyed by the '* worms," and Dr. J. B. Smith the nearly complete 

 destruction of the chestnut crop of New Jersey for 1893. 



THE SPECIES OF CHESTNUT WEEVILS. 



The weevils which Ave know to depredate on chestnuts are two in 

 number, the chinquapin weevil, Balaninus pf&boscideus F&b. , and the 

 chestnut weevil, B. rectus Sa} T . Like all other species of the genus 

 the} r have extremely long, slender beaks or snouts, nearly as fine as a 

 horsehair, and in these species considerably longer than the body in the 

 female. By means of this long snout the female is able to penetrate 

 the thick burr of the chestnut with its long spines and to cut out with 

 the minute and sharp mandibles at the tip a little hole for the deposi- 

 tion of her eggs. These are deposited, by means of a long ovipositor, 

 through the husk, to the growing nut. The two species resemble each 

 other greatly in color and in marking's, the general color of both being 

 golden yellow above (generally described as oehraceous or even cla} r 



