WEEVIL, a general name applied not only to various genera of adult beetles but also to dant larva. They form a group Khyacho Move, or snout-beetles, so called from the char acteristic production of the head in the form of a prominent snout, bearing the elbowed antenna at the sides and the small mouth at its tip. There are several families. .but most of these beetles belong to the Curculionida which is said to include upward of 600 genera and 211.0lX) species. All of them are vegetarians and the larva are little white or yellow, fat footles. grubs which mostly bve within the tissues of plants, and are especially destructive to nuts, seeds and fruits. One of the most conspicuous and harmful is cotton-boll weevil (Anthem, sat grandio). It is about one-fifth of an inch lung and may be differentiated from related species by the fact that the tibia of the first pair of legs are provided with two small spines. Immediately after transforming from the pupal state the color is reddish hut some time after emergence the color becomes consi 'erable darker. The grub-like larva are considerably longer than the adults, strongly curved. white with pale yellowish heads. The eggs are depot ited in punctures made by means of the of the female weevil in the buds (called squares) and bolls. The larva devour the interior. In fested squares practically invariably fall to the ground but bolls always remain attached to the plant. In the case of the squares. of course, the fruit is ruined. In case of bolls only the infested like or apartment is destroyed. The life-cycle is completed in about 20 days and there is an inextricable confusion of genera tions. The winter is passed in the adult stage, the individuals flying to the woods cr seeking shelter in debris around or inside of the cotton fields.
This insect probably originated in Central America. It was introduced into the United States near Brownsville. Tex., about 1892. By 1895 it became established as a serious pest and has continued to spread northward and eastward. It has now extended about 585 miles northward from Brownsville and to a point within 10 miles of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Five counties in southwestern Ar kansas have also become invaded. Efforts to stay the progress of the weevil have been un availing, but an effective method of mitigating its damage has been perfected. The methods of destroying or controlling recommended by the : ?„i re, which has pub lished several valuable p Wets on the nat ural history ' -- • ork of this insect, are the remos as in um maids from the fields in the fall when there is no prospect of any more fruit being allowed to mature; early planting, the use of early maturing varieties, the application of fertilizers and intensive culti vation.
Thegrain-weevil granarnu) is a little dark red beetle about an eighth of an inch long. The eggs are deposited on wheat after it is stored, and the larva burrow therein, each larva inhabiting a single grain. The r'ce weevil (S. °ryes) destroys rice and Indian corn in a like fashion; this species has four red spots on the elytra or wing-covers. An other species (Calandra palmanan) infests palm-trees, is common in Guiana and attains a length of two inches, the larva burrowing in the pith of the trees. C. sacchari inhabits sugar-canes. The genus Rhynchites, of which the grape-weevil (K baccku,r) is an example, bas the head broad behind; it devastates the growing vines, and strips them of their leaves. The plum curculio (Conairackehu
nesnithor) causes great damage to plums, cherries and other stone fruits The eggs are laid one at a place in the young, forming fruit, upon the flesh of which the larva feeds, causing it to drop prematurely or to become 'wormy • The beetle is less than one-fifth of an inch long and dark brown spotted with black and yellow. The familiar chestnut-worm is the larva of Balminess rectaa, remarkable for the great length of the snout, which ex ceeds the short robust body and which is adapted for piercing the thick burrs of the young chestnuts, permitting the deposition of an egg in the kernel. Related species of the genus infest other nuts. Equally troublesome to fruit-growers are the species of Antkonomus, of which one pretty little weevil (A. signatus) causes great damage to the Sharpless and other staminate varieties of strawberry. This species attacks the flowers, and the larva: feed upon the pollen. Quite different in its habits is the potato weevil or potato-stalk borer (Tricko basis frinotalo), the larva of which bores pas sages in the stems of potatoes and wild plants of the same family. The clover-weevil (Pkyto nomus pitnctatus) has green larvae, which differ from all of the foregoing in living exposed to the air and light, though they feed chiefly at night. They eat the leaves, and as they hiber nate in the ground and begin to feed almost as soon as the clover sprouts in the spring they become most serious pests. The adults are nearly a third of an inch long, thick-bodied and short-snouted, with strongly knobbed antennae.
To the family Bruchide belong the ex tremely destructive pea and bean weevils, which have the proboscis short and curved down on the breast and the antenna not elbowed. They are small beetles with stout bodies and the swollen abdomen often projecting beyond the tips of the wing-covers. Unlike the Curca honider, which become quiescent and assume an appearance of death, these beetles are ex tremely active and fly when disturbed. The larva of the pea-weevil (Brvchus yisi) damages peas, the eggs being laid when the peas are ripening. They destroy much of the substance of the grain, lessen its germinating power and pupate in its interior. The mature insect is black marked with white spots, and about an eighth of an inch long. The B. pisi was at one time so destructive in North America that its ravages threatened to wholly exterminate the pea crops. Several species are named corn-a eevils, from their destructive effects in granaries. B. granaries also attacks pea sand and one species infests the cocoanut. The bean weevil (B. fake) is plain brown in color but otherwise similar.
Weevils are very difficult to control on ac count of their small size, inconspicuousness and the fact that the destructive larva are gen erally beyond the effective reach of insecticides. The best measures consist in the total destruc tion by of all infested fruits, nuts or stems, the digging or plowing in the late fall of the ground in which the pups hibernate, and in the case of the pea and bean weevils the fumigation with carbon bisulphide of all infested seed. Consult Harris and Flint, 'In sects Injurious to Vegetation' (New York 1884) • Saunders, 'Insects Injurious to Fruits' (Philadelphia 1883); Smith, 'Economic Entomology' (Philadelphia 1896); and special papers published numerously by the United States Department of Agriculture and by the experiment stations of various States.