THE RED ROSE BEETLE 
Rynchites bicolor, Fab. 
In tlie eaii}^ summer, when the Japanese roses are still in bud, 
one may very often find a reddish snout beetle with a blaek head 
and beak puneturino- the buds full of holes. Even though the in- 
seet may appear in small numbers, most of the flowers will be so 
bill of holes as to be worthless. The beetles also bore holes into 
the stems, eausing many of the buds to wither and the hips to be 
undersized. 
Name. — This inseet is at present called the Rose Curculio. 
Since there are other snout lieetles attacking the rose and as this 
beetle is not one of the true Curculionidae, it seems to the writer 
that a better name w^ould be the Red Rose Beetle. Its liright red 
thorax and wdng covers make it conspicuous and easily dis- 
tinguished.. 
Varietal Susceptibility. — It was found that in the form, Rosa 
riiyosa, the common Japanese rose, the eggs are laid within the 
hips, and not in the flowers or elsewhere. However, with Rosa 
niyosa alba, a white variety, the larvae were found within the 
llowers on July 22, to be already about half-grown. It appears, 
then, that in this variety, the eggs are laid in the flowers, and later 
the lar\'ae may crawl into the hips. After eggs have been laid in 
the llo\vers of R. rugosa alba,, the beetles prohalily puncture llic 
stem cither deliberately or accidentall}y due to their voracious 
feeding habits, for the flowers remain closed and the hips become 
dried and shriveled. Fig. 2. 
Larva. — Length to 5 mm. x 2 mm. wide. Width of head 
about 1 mm. Whitish or yellowish in color. Head same color as 
body except for portion above epistoma, where it is brownish in 
color, the coloration extending somewdiat farther along the median 
suture. Epistoma dark brown; clypeus and labrum light; man- 
dibles nearly all l)lack and with three teeth. Labrum wider at 
base and bristly in front. Antennae minute, one-jointed and sit- 
uated at base of mandibles. Body strongly curved and covered 
with numerous small hairs. The spiracles, one on the t)rothorax 
