8 CEREAL AND FORAGE INSECTS. 



heads in Europe. (See Kaltenbach, loc. cit.) There seems, however, 

 to be a difference in the time required for the change in color, as 

 between European and American adults, as Bargagli (loc. cit.) states 

 that tins change takes place "soon, " on drying. 



Invariably the adult devoured its cocoon or as much of it as 

 could be detached from the object to which it was spun. In Mr. 

 Houghton's excellent paper (1908) the change of color in the adult 

 was not recorded and he was unable to account for the consumption 

 of the cocoon by the single adult under his observation, except on 

 the score of a total lack of other food. 



We lost track of the adults in July, as Mr. Hyslop was absent 

 from the District, so that no connected observations could be made, 

 but it appears that after developing in the fields the beetles disperse 

 very much as do those of P. punctatus, which, during summer, is as 

 likely to be found crawling over the walks and pavements of cities 

 and towns as anywhere else. 



On September 23 the author took a single individual, either an 

 undersized female or a male, on the inside of his office window, wdiile 



Mr. Hyslop found a single indi- 

 vidual at the roots of a wheat 

 plant in the middle of a wheat 

 field at Marion, Pa., November 

 21, 1908. This concluded the 

 first year's observations on the 

 species. 



Fig. 6.— Egg of the lesser clover-leaf weevil placed in- x . 



terepidermally in leaf, with part of egg surface ex- Mr. Houghton states m lllS 



posed, showing granulation. Highly magnified. p a p er that the earliest date 



on which he found adults in 

 spring in Delaware was April 12. Mr. Hyslop found adults in the 

 same locality as that visited in 1908, among the dead and dried 

 leaves and stems of the previous year's growth, on April 1, when 

 the sexes were pairing preparatory to oviposition. Adults taken 

 at this time, however, did not deposit eggs for a week, so it would 

 seem that they were only just commencing their activity. He had 

 not searched for them earlier, the season being somewhat back- 

 ward, and it is probable that they may be found about the clover 

 plants as soon as the weather becomes warm enough to start the 

 growth of the young leaves. Female beetles confined in small vials 

 with clover leaves deposit eggs somewhat as described by Mr. Hough- 

 ton, as follows: 



"Several were found situated interepidermally, sometimes singly, 

 sometimes in pairs. They were inserted through punctures, some- 

 times made through the upper epidermis of the leaf, sometimes 

 through the lower, apparently. * * * The unusual way in which 

 part of the eggs were laid in this case was that a bunch of six, some- 

 what irregularly stuck together, was deposited upon one of the leaves. " 



