14 BULLETIN" 1066, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
found parasitic upon the larvae ; one of these was determined by Mr. 
JR. A. Cushman as Triaspis curculionis var. rufus (Rile}^) and the 
other by Mr. C. F. W. Muesebeck as a new species of Mierogaster. 
Pierce u records rearing the parasitic fly Myiophasia aenea Wied. 
from thisliost. 
THE HICKORY-SHOOT CURCULIO. 12 
Soon after the growth of hickory begins in the spring the tender 
tips and leaf petioles may be found disfigured by dark, V-shaped 
marks on the bark about an eighth of an inch long. (PI. VII, B.) 
These are the egg punctures of a small snout-beetle which may be 
known as the hickory-shoot curculio. Often these marks occur in 
series of from 5 to 10 along the shoot, one above each leaf axil. Ex- 
amination of these marks usually discloses either the single white 
egg (PL VII, C ; PI. VIII, A) or a small white grub feeding in the 
stem (PI. VII, D and E). The affected tip or leaf usually withers 
and drops as a result of the injury. No instance of serious loss 
from this insect has come under the writer's notice, but injurious 
attacks, especially to newly transplanted hickory trees, are a pos- 
sibility. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
This species was described from Kentucky in 1824 and has since 
been recorded from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Florida, 
and Texas. The writer has found it abundantly at French Creek, 
W. Va., and has observed its work in other West Virginia localities. 
FOOD PLANTS. 
This curculio has been observed attacking the shoots of the fol- 
lowing hickories in West Virginia: Hicoria minima, H. ovata, H. 
alba, H. glabra, and H. pecan. 
LIFE HISTORY. 
EGG. 
The egg (PI. VII, C '; PI. VIII, A) is oval, oblong, creamy white, 
semitransparent, and averages 1.1 mm. by 0.7 mm. It occupies a 
shallow cavity at the side of an elongate slit which the female beetle 
makes with her snout in the bark of tender twigs and leaf petioles. 
(PL VII, A.) After the egg is deposited the bark over the egg 
cavity and along the edges of the slit turns dark and the wound 
shows as a blackish, triangular spot on the green bark. (PL VII. B.) 
Several eggs laid on May 24 hatched on May 30, the incubation 
period being six days. 
11 Pierce, W. Dwight. A list of tarasites known to attack American rhtncho- 
phora. In Jour. Econ. Ent., v. 1, no. G, p. 390. 1008. 
12 Conotrachelus aratus Germ., suborder Rbyncbophora, family Curculionidae, tribe 
Cryptorbynchini. 
