138 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



active at night, and I bad also seen the idea ridiculed, and being somewbat 

 sceptical on tbe point, resolved to test it. Accordingly I went out about 

 midnight with lantern and sheet, and on jarring one tree down came two 

 curculios, and from another tree one. When they drop to the ground from 

 jarring in the day-time they usually remain motionless for a good while, 

 feigning death. But there was no shamming about these creatures taken at 

 this time of night, for they commenced to run about at once on the sheet, 

 and fearing they would fly they were quickly transferred to a pill box. 

 Thsy were then taken into a room where there was a lamp burning, when 

 on opening tlie box one of them at once took wing attracted by the lamp, 

 and flew around the light. Thinking this activity might be due in part to 

 the stimulus of a bright light, I placed them in a dark room for a while, and 

 then approached them with the faintest glimmer of light, just enough to 

 enable me to see them, when I observed them running about very quickly, 

 faster than I have seen them move in bright daylight. This ended the 

 experiments for that time, and the insects were closely shut up in a box for 

 safety. 



The next night the operation was repeated, and two curculios taken from 

 one tree as before. These manifested just the same symptoms of activity as 

 their predecessors, and along with them (now five in all) they were put into 

 a box having a glass lid, with a small branch from a plain tree having five 

 plums on it, each one of which had been carefully examined and found quite 

 free from puncture or bite of any sort. The box was placed in a darkened 

 room and covered with a black cloth so arranged that no light could possibly 

 penetrate until its removal. Early in the morning the cloth was suddenly taken 

 away and two of the curculios were found working on the plums, while the 

 others were quiet or leisurely walking around in other parts of the box. The 

 branch was at once taken out and examined : plum No. 1 had a puncture at 

 the tip, hollowed out so that the skin was getting black; No. 2 was in the 

 same state with a second large puncture in the side; No. 3 had two punctures 

 on the tip, one large and one small one; No. 4, a small puncture near the 

 base of the stem, while in No. 5 four eggs were deposited, and it was also 

 punctured in four places, one of the punctures being very large, deep, and 

 crescent shaped, a second quite shallow, barely through the skin. I observed 

 that they were much less active in the morning than at night. 



Being anxious to see how they would do their work in the day-time, 

 another branch was cut with sound plums on it a little before noon and 

 placed in the box with the same insects. When exposed to the sunlight they 

 were nearly as active as in the night, occasionally flying around the box 

 inside. They were left exposed under a slight shade afforded by a small tree 



