October, ’24] 
LARSON: WEEVILY SEED BEANS 
539 
seed leaves. But the remaining two-fifths were variously mutilated by 
the loss of a part or the whole of the germ or plumule, so that under no 
circumstances could they have made plants. Here then, but 30 percent 
could have passed the germinating stage, and these, owing to more or 
less considerable injury to the seed leaves, would probably have made 
plants of low vigor. In a check lot of perfect beans of the same varieties 
and in the same numbers, planted alongside, 95 percent germinated.” 
Razzanti 6 in Italy concluded from experiments carried out in 1917 
that weevil infested beans were unsuitable for seed. He found that the 
percentage of unattacked beans which germinated was 84 and that of in¬ 
fested beans was on an average only 23.6. Plants from infested seed 
were weak and subject to fungus diseases and gave a smaller yield of in¬ 
ferior quality. 
Similar, if less extensive, experiments with various kinds of peas and 
beans have been recorded by Riley and Howard, 5 Lintner, 10 Goff, 11 
Beal, 12 and Wood. 13 
The present paper gives the results of investigation carried on by the 
writer (2) for several years in Alhambra, California and corroborates some 
of the foregoing statements and indicates that the others do not apply 
to the above named weevils. 
Weevily Beans Defined 
The term “weevily beans” is general, and may be applied to any one or 
all of the following classes of beans; (1) Beans containing living weevils 
of any or all stages, but from which no weevils have emerged; (2) 
Beans having no emergence holes, but containing dead weevils of one or 
more stages; (3) Beans from which some weevils have emerged, and in 
which there remain weevils, dead or alive; (4) Beans from which all 
weevils have emerged, and (5) Clean beans among which are a few 
beans of either of the foregoing classes. In this paper only those of the 
first 4 classes will be considered. 
Germination in the Laboratory and in the Feild 
During 1921 germination tests of weevily beans were made in the 
laboratory, and they showed that beans having as many as 9 emergence 
holes would germinate. The heavier the infestation the greater was the 
2 The writer received valuable assistance from Edgar Nelson, Albert H. Amis and 
C. K. Fisher in counting weevil holes, making germination tests and planting and 
caring for the growing crop, as well as in making observations of weevil injury to the 
growing plants. 
