86 INSECTS AFFECTING STOKED PRODUCTS. 
the year 1896, when many cowpeas were grown in the District, it was 
very abundant in the field in September. Since that time it has not 
been so noticeable, probably because cowpeas are not so extensively 
grown here. It was the prevalent species in cowpeas in the Norfolk 
region in 1911. It is fairly certain that it is capable of establishing 
itself wherever its food plant will grow. 
Described from China it was later identified in seeds from many 
localities and is now widely known through its distribution by com- 
merce, being particularly abundant in tropical countries. Its re- 
corded distribution abroad includes Europe; China, Japan, East 
India, and Korea, in Asia; Egypt, Sierra Leone, Barbary, Algeria, 
Rhodesia, Amani, and the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa ; Porto Eico, 
Bermuda, Jamaica, British West Indies; Panama, Brazil, and Chile, 
in tropical America ; Hawaii, Celebes : Java, Dutch East Indies, and 
Mauritius. 
The cowpea is credited with having first been cultivated in this 
country in the early days of the eighteenth century, and the weevil 
came with it or soon afterwards, but there is no available record of 
the occurrence of the insect here earlier than 1853. x 
LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS. 
OVIPOSITION. 
The usual process of oviposition on dry beans and similar seed as 
observed by the writer is as follows : 
The female crawls about the seed to select a place for deposition; 
after a few seconds she stops and remains perfectly quiet and in 
less than a minute, sometimes at once, begins to extrude the egg, com- 
pleting the operation by a curious and vigorous wriggle from side 
to side and a short forward motion as the egg is deposited. Within 
less than another minute, sometimes at once, she turns about and 
examines the egg with her palpi. Sometimes this is omitted and she 
rests for a time; again she proceeds at once to repeat the operation 
in from three to four minutes after the first egg was laid, always 
crawling about for half a minute or more to select a new place for its 
reception. 
Apparently it is the general rule with this, as well as with related 
species and with man} 7 other beetles, to deposit each egg on a dif- 
ferent seed, but sometimes two, three, or even four are deposited on 
the same seed by the same fern ale_, and other females follow until an 
indefinite number are deposited on one seed. As many as 30 eggs 
may be counted, in badly infested material, on a single seed of cow- 
pea measuring three-eighths of an inch in length. Plate I shows 
the eggs of this species on Blackeye cowpeas. 
1 F. E. Melsheimer, Cat. Col. U. S., 1853, p. 99, mentioned as scutellaris Fab., synonym 
of sinuatus Schoen. 
