Raspberry Weevil. 



63 



The Clay Coloured, or Raspberry, Weevil 

 ( Otiorrhynchus ptctpes, Fab.). 



Larva, 1, la ; pupa, 2, 2a; weevil, 3, 3a; natural size and magnified. 



This beetle was most destructive in hop grounds and fruit 

 plantations in the last spring. The hop shoots were 

 punctured both before and after the bine was tied. In 

 many places it was thought that wireworms were the cause 

 of this mischief, as the beetle is most difficult to detect on 

 account of its earthy colour, and because it only works at 

 night, remaining among the clods near to the hop stocks by 

 day. Wireworms, however, bite only the roots and the 

 shoots of hop plants close to the bases of the roots ; whereas 

 the injured hop shoots were found to be bitten all over. 

 Some hop plants were, therefore, kept under observation and 

 the beetles were seen crawling up the shoots just after sun- 

 down. On closely examining the earth round the stocks 

 the next day several beetles were found, though it was most 

 difficult to discover them, as they are so like the soil in 

 colour, and upon being alarmed they remain perfectly 

 motionless, feigning to be dead. 



A figure is given above which shows the insect in all its 

 stages. It remains in the ground, in larval or maggot form, 

 until the early spring, when it changes to a pupa, and very 

 soon the beetle emerges and attacks hop plants, fruit trees, and 

 other plants near it. The beetle is clay-coloured, wingless, 

 and the third of an inch long. Eggs are laid in the ground 

 towards the end of the summer. The larvae, or maggots, 

 cause much injury to the hop stocks or "hills 55 in which 



