PHYTONOMUS PUNCTATUS, Fabricius: The Punctured Clover-leaf Weevil

Extract

A curculio new to Canada has appearecl in this locality. Prevailing east winds about Aug. 10th wafted this nerv clover pest to our shores. This beetle, as far as I know, has not been mentioned in the Entomologist. It was introduced from Europe little more than three years ago. Appearing on the eastern seaboard, and taking the continent in the inverse order to the movement of the Colorado Potato Beetle, it is working rapidly westward. Last year no specimens were reported west of Rochester, while in Eastern New York the clover crop was destroyed by this insect. On the date above mentioned it appeared in Buffalo in such numbers that thousands were crushed on the pavements by the feet of passers-by. Simultaneous with this was its appearance in Ridgeway. I picked them from the fences and sidewalks, and found them in the grass on my lawn. Mr. Reinecke could have gathered them by the quart along the lake shore at Buffalo, where they had stranded after being carried by the wind far out upon the water. They have the extraordinary faculty of closing their tracheæ and suspending respiration while in the water, and an hour's sunshine on the sandy beach leaves them none the worse for a good soaking.