530 
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 17 
They are deposited separately in the mud in which the tules are growing 
and occasionally in incisions in the stems of that plant, the great ma¬ 
jority being in the former situation. Of 50 eggs secured in the labora¬ 
tory 35 were laid in the mud at the bottom of the cage. Under more 
normal conditions the percentage of eggs deposited in the tule stems 
probably would have been much smaller. Oviposition in the wet soil 
surrounding the rootstocks undoubtedly is the more common habit. 
Examination of many of the aerial stems has never revealed any evi¬ 
dence of the larvae feeding therein, and in the dissecting of over 200 
pieces of rootstock bearing many times that number of bases of stems 
only one such base showed the feeding burrow of the descending larva. 
In this single instance the adult, very small and much distorted, was 
found dead in the pupal cell in the rootstock. 
The newly hatched larva is but slightly larger than the egg, and of the 
typical burrowing weevil larva shape, pearly white in color, with dark 
brown head and mandibles. The fullgrown larva is about of an inch 
in length and more than half that in diameter, with small brown head, 
the body white and very much wrinkled. The larvae, on hatching, 
burrow into the succulent rootstocks, making tortuous tunnels running 
mostly longitudinally, which steadily increase in diameter. The burrows 
are filled with masticated fragments of the rootstock. When full 
grown the larva slightly enlarges the burrow into a smooth walled cell in 
which pupation takes place. The pupal cells usually are located in the 
upper portion of the rootstock near the base of an aerial stem, inclined 
upwards, with the scaly epidermis of the root forming a thin cover over 
the upper end of the cell. 
The newly formed pupa is of a pearly white color, slightly less than the 
fullgrown larva in size. Just before transforming to the adult the pupa 
shows a decided pink tint on the thorax, changing to a*light brown on the 
thorax of the newly emerged adult, the wing covers of the latter being 
creamy white, with reddish lines, the margins being decidedly red. 
The adult changes to a very dark reddish brown, nearly black, with 
light markings on the sides and under surface, from three to five days 
elapsing, before the full coloration appears. The proboscis is about the 
length of the head and thorax. The adults vary in size from five-eighths 
to nearly an inch in length, the average being about of an inch, ex¬ 
clusive of the snout. They are strong fliers, mounting high into the air 
with a rapid steady flight, and individuals are often found miles from 
any tule beds. They are sometimes present in large numbers during the 
