. Bulletin. Insects; Insect pests; Entomology; Insects; Insect pests; Entomology. 16 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. The beetles pass the winter hidden away among matted grass or other similar vegetation, including alfalfa, and, indeed, among most kinds of rubbish anywhere, wherever they will be protected from the weather. The beetles have also been found in early spring under clods and about the crowns of alfalfa plants where the ground had been roughly cultivated the previous autumn. The overgrown mar- gins of fields and irrigation canals and ditches afford excellent places for hiberna
. Bulletin. Insects; Insect pests; Entomology; Insects; Insect pests; Entomology. 16 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ALFALFA WEEVIL. The beetles pass the winter hidden away among matted grass or other similar vegetation, including alfalfa, and, indeed, among most kinds of rubbish anywhere, wherever they will be protected from the weather. The beetles have also been found in early spring under clods and about the crowns of alfalfa plants where the ground had been roughly cultivated the previous autumn. The overgrown mar- gins of fields and irrigation canals and ditches afford excellent places for hibernation, some of which are shown in Plate II, figures 1, 2, and 3. With the first warm weather in spring the beetles become active and diffuse themselves over the alfalfa fields, feeding upon any living part of the plants that have escaped the win- ter or, as soon as it commences to push forth, on the fresh growth, both leaf and stem. During some years the beetles are abroad in the fields in Utah early in March; in other and colder springs it may be April before they bestir themselves. Latitude and elevation, with the consequent modi- fications of tempera- ture, will have much to do in deciding the time of emergence from winter quarters Fig. 2.—The clover-leaf weevil (Hypcra punctata): a, Egg; 6,6,6,6, inspiring. Tlievalsoto larvae feeding;/cocoon; ^beetle; fc same dorsal view (6,/, /.Natural extent hibernate size; k, enlarged; a, greatly enlarged.) (From Riley.) in the alfalfa fields. As soon as the beetles have spread from their winter quarters out over the fields they pair, and the females are ready to deposit their eggs (figs. 3, 4). As a matter of fact, however, pairing has been observed in the fall, and females taken while hibernating are ob- served to lay 75 per cent of fertile eggs. According to the notes of Mr. Fiske, made in Italy, they may place their eggs in the old, dead, overwintered stems or even in the dead stems of plants other than those of alfalfa, but in Utah
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