THE INSECT WORLD. 



231 



Fig. 237. 



making it difficult to pierce with any ordinary pin. It bores 

 little holes in the leaf and flower stems of the plant, laying an 

 egg in each, from which hatches in 

 due time a white, grub-like lar^^a, 

 which feeds in the plant tissue. 

 Where the leaves are regularly cut 

 for market, little trouble is experi- 

 enced. All old leaves not needed 

 by the plant should be removed and 

 destroyed, so that after midsummer 

 none of the early leaves should re- 

 main on the plants. If this practice 

 is constantly carried out no injury 

 need be apprehended. The natural 

 food-plant is said to be dock. 



In the genus Antho7iomus small 

 species predominate, and the colors 

 are modest, but their powers of in- 

 jury are by no means in proportion 

 to their size. One of the most trou- 

 blesome is the "strawberry-weevil," 

 A, signatiis, which appears as a small, blackish beetle, with gray 

 pubescence, when the buds are developing, and lays an egg in 

 each, afterward puncturing the flower-stalk be- 

 low the bud so as to check development. The 

 larva feeds upon the pollen in the unopened 

 bud, and finds it sufficient to attain its full 

 growth, changing to a beetle in midsummer. 

 The insect attacks a number of other flowers 

 in the same way, not even confining itself to 

 one natural family, and its injury to straw- 

 berries is of a somewhat intermittent character, 

 becoming worse for a number of years, then 

 stopping suddenly for no apparent reason. 

 Only staminate, or pollen-bearing, varieties are 

 attacked, and the Sharpless is, perhaps, the 

 most seriously infested. By planting chiefly 

 pistillate varieties, the staminate rows may be protected by cheap 

 coverings until the buds are ready to open, and even if a small 



Rhubarb-beetle, Lixtis coticaviis. 

 —a, its larva ; b, pupa. 



Fig. 2^,8. 



Strawberry-weevil, 

 Anthonomus signatus. 



