4711 



SUBFAMILY X. CURCTJLIOXI.NM:. 



to July and again in August. Abundant over the United States 

 east of the 100th meridian, its range extending from Newfound- 

 land and Quebec, Canada, to Florida and Texas. Known as the 

 "plum curcnlio," breeding in plum, peach, cherry and apple, often 

 in destructive numbers, causing an estimated annual loss of 



a 



Fig. 105. a, Larva; b, beetle; c, pupa. All much 

 enlarged. (After Riley.) 



f 8,500,000 in the United States. Qnaintance and Jenne (1912) 

 state that "The adults hibernate, and issue from their winter- 

 quarters about the time the trees are in bloom, feeding on the 

 tender foliage, buds and blossoms. Later they attack the newly 

 set fruit, cutting small circular holes through the skin in feeding, 

 while the females, in the operation of egg-laying, make the small, 

 crescent-shaped punctures so commonly found on plums and other 

 stone fruits. The egg, deposited under the skin of the fruit, soon 

 hatches into a very small whitish grub, which makes its way into 

 the flesh of the fruit. Here it feeds greedily and grows rapidly, 

 becoming, in the course of a fortnight, the fat, dirty white 

 'worm' so well known to fruit growers. When the larva obtains 

 full growth, which requires some twelve to eighteen days, it bores 

 ils way out of the fruit and enters the soil, where it forms an 

 earthen cell in which to pupate. The time required for the pupal 

 stage and the emergence of the normally colored beetle is from 

 three to four weeks. Thus the period of development from egg to 

 adult is covered in from five to seven weeks." It may be con- 

 trolled by persistent spraying with arsenate of lead, one pound 

 in 20 gallons of water. Jarring the trees in spring and early 

 summer over white cloth stretched over a frame, and destroying 

 the beetles thus collected is also a common remedy. 



730 (8715). CONOTRACHELUS RETENTI-S Say, 1831, 27; ibid. I, 295. 



Oblong-oval. Dark reddish-brown, nearly uniformly clothed with short, 

 dark gray pubescence; antennae and legs pale reddish-brown; thorax with 



