WEEVIL (AS. irif el, OHG.
weevil : connected with AS. wcfan, OHG. wrhan, (ter. Ircbrn, to weave. Gk. tkpos, hyphOS, wet, Skt. iirannibhi, wool-spinner, spider). A name ap plied to many of the snout-beetles of the sub order or series phynchophora,:l11d also to species of the family Briwhidie of the series Phytophaga. The heads of the beetles of the former group, which it is said includes 25,000 species, are pro longed into a beak which in some species exceeds the length of the body. The jaws are placed at the tip of the snout, by means of which holes are drilled, and in some species the eggs pushed into place. According to Sharp only four fami lies of snout.beetles can be :tempted with eer inty. Other authors subdivide the order into more than twice as many families. The com moner North American species belong to Olio rhyuchithe, Curculionithe, Calandrielte, and Scoly tithe, the first including over 100 North Amer ican species, which are commonly known as scarred snout-beetles, because the appendage borne on the mandible of the pupa, or even of the young adult, later falls off and leaves a scar.
A ramiyus which is destructive to roses (see ROSE INSECTS), belongs to this family. Evi imbricatus (see IMBRICATED SNOUT BEETLE) is destructive to trees, shrubs, fruits, and vegetables. Certain weevils of the Ehyn ahitedie which in the larval stage roll the leaves of plants are the only true leaf-rollers (q.v.) among the beetles. The family Curculionidce in cludes 20,000 species, among which are some of the most destructive of beetles. In this family the mandible is not scarred. The antenwe are frequently elbowed. The maggot-like larvae are especially injurious to fruits, seeds, and nuts. Two species (Bulaninus guereus and Bu/aninus reef us) breed in acorns. Bu/uninus nusieus in hickory-nuts, and Balaninus cargatrypes in chest nuts. Conotrachclus nenuphar is the cause of 'wormy' plums and cherries. See PLUM INSECTS.
To this group belong certain destructive species of the genus Authonomus. The strawberry weevil ( A nthonomus signatus) destroys the buds of strawberry. (See STRAWBERRY INSECTS.) The
most destructive, perhaps. of the whole series, however, is the 'sharpshooter? 'picudo: an in sect most widely known as the :Mexican cotton boll weevil (A ntloanom us grandis), one of the largest species of its genus. This insect, whose normal habitat is Central America and the West( Indies, and whose ravages stopped the cul tivation of cotton in the 3lonelova district of the State of Coahuila, Mexico, in 1$63, made its appearance in the vicinity of Matamoros about 1888, spread across the river to Brownsville, Texas, and at the close of 1902 ranged over practically all of the best cotton-growing region of Texas, where in 1901 and 1902 its ravages were estimated at about $10,000.000. The adult insect is a small, long-snouted grayish weevil less than one-quarter of an inch long. Through out the season it punctures and lays its eggs in the squares and bolls. The larva is a fat, white maggot a little over three-eighths of an inch long when full-grown. and lives upon the in ternal tissues of the buds and bolls. When the square is attacked it usually drops, but most of the damaged bolls remain upon the plant and become stunted or dwarfed except late in the season. when they either dry or rot. The larva pupates within the boll, which may contain sev eral larva-. The adult weevils hibernate in grass, in late cornstalks, in old bolls on the cotton plants, and ill piles of seed about the cotton gins, etc. They appear when the cotton begins to blossom, or earlier, awl feed upon the young twigs aml leaves. There are four or more gen erations each summer, the larva- being found as late as Deeember. No food-plant other than cotton is known. The infestation of a field is evident from the dropping of the blossoms. The Department of Agriculture recommends as the best remedies early planting, thorough cultiva tion, the planting of wide rows in order to ad mit the sun, and the destruction of the plants by fall plowing and fire in the autumn.