98 



patch, bearing a pale oblique stripe across the centre, 

 forming an angle at the suture ; and towards the apex 

 are two ochreous spots ; wings very ample ; legs mo- 

 derately long and ferruginous ; anterior thighs stout, 

 with a strong tooth beneath — the others are similar, 

 but smaller ; the anterior tibiae are cinuated inter- 

 nally, and they are all terminated by a claw ; the 

 tarsi are 4-jointecl, the third joint being bilobed, the 

 fourth furnished with minute claws. The smaller 

 figures denote the natural sizes of the animals. 



These beetles will also lay their eggs in the flower- 

 buds of pear-trees, and it is on calm days the females 

 are occupied in depositing them ; for in windy or 

 frosty weather they retire to sheltered situations. In 

 genial springs, when the blossoms open in a week or 

 ten days, these weevils do little mischief; but in cold, 

 clamp seasons, when the buds are three weeks or more 

 in expanding, scarcely an apple-blossom sometimes 

 escapes. The best mode of destroying them is to 

 gather the punctured withered flower-buds and burn 

 them, by which means the larva? and pupae will be 

 cut off, and the beetles may be collected by beating 

 the branches over a net ; but unless this is done as 

 soon as they make their appearance, it will not be of 

 much service, as the eggs will have been deposited. 

 From various statements it seems that the females 

 will not readily fly, and, as they crawl up the trees, 

 their incursions may be stopped, and the crops saved, 



