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CLOVER AND PEA WEEVILS. 
17 
of darkness. My own experience is exactly opposite to this. I have 
found the Beetles in thousands upon their food-plants by day, but 
seldom or never engaged in feeding. Whereas I do not think that 
I have ever gone out with a lantern by night, and examined a row of 
growing Peas or Beans, without finding the Beetles upon the leaves in 
hundreds, all busily nibbling away at the edges. At such times they 
are not nearly so susceptible to alarm, and do not fall at the vibration 
of a passing footstep. I find that they feed most freely upon damp, 
mild evenings, especially in the months of April and May. And I also 
find that a thick layer of soot is as efficacious as anything for keeping 
them away. Only, this must always be renewed after a shower of rain. 
My own observations were made in a garden in which it was quite 
impossible to grow early Peas without something like nightly super¬ 
vision ; and, without exaggeration, I may say that I have sometimes 
seen an average of a dozen Weevils upon every leaf during my rounds 
at about 10 p.m.” 
The above very practical observations may prove of great service, 
for the fact noticed of the Beetles not falling off the plants as in the 
daytime at once puts them much more under the influence of soot or 
other dressings that may be used, and this plan might act so well in 
garden cultivation where the Weevils are most destructive to young 
Peas that any notes regarding its trial would be very acceptable. 
Up to the year 1882 nothing was known as to the early history of 
these Clover (and also Pea and Bean) Weevils, but on April 6tli in that 
year some grubs about a quarter of an inch long (when full-grown), 
wrinkled and legless, of a whitish colour, with ochre-coloured head 
and dark brown jaws, were observed by Mr. Reginald Christy, of 
Boynton Hall, near Chelmsford, to be doing injury at the roots of the 
Clover. 
The maggots were mostly found “at or near the tap root of the 
Clover, and some at the extremity of the smaller roots, which showed 
injury from their gnawings ; in some cases large holes had been eaten, 
and in all cases the part thus eaten had turned black.” * 
Some of the Weevil-grubs sent me soon ceased feeding, and had 
formed hollow chambers in the earth by about May 8th; at the end of 
May some of the maggots were turning to the chrysalis state, and the 
Weevils ( Sitonas ) from these began to appear about June 20th. In the 
same year specimens of Weevil-maggots were also sent me, taken from 
Pea-roots hy Mr. T. H. Hart, of Kingsnorth Farm, Ashford, Kent, 
from which I reared the common Pea (and Clover) Weevils, Sitona 
lineata. The following figure, drawn by myself at the time, conveys 
(though not so artistically as could be wished) the Weevil in its three 
^ * ‘ Report of Observations of Injurious Insects during the year 1882,’ pp. 13, 14. 
By E. A. Ormerod. 
c 
