The Quince Curculio. 377 



was reported from Pennsylvania, in 1867, on peach trees, and the 

 next year it was found in New Jersey on pears. It was not until 

 1870, however, that anything was known of the habits and early 

 stages of the pest. That year. Dr. Riley found that it bred very 

 abundantly in the common haws in the West, and Trimble reported 

 that it was breeding freely in quinces and pears in the East ; one 

 quince crop in New Jersey was reduced from 100 to 30 barrels, and 

 late varieties of pears had also suffered severely in New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania and western New York. 



This is the first definite record of the occurrence of the insect'" in 

 New York, and there seems to have been no other report of its 

 occurrence in the state in injurious numbers for eleven years. Nearly 

 every year since i88r, however, western New York quince growers 

 have reported that a large percentage of their fruits were "wormy" 

 or " knotty." We have also seen evidences of the work of the pest 

 wherever we have found quinces growing in the central and eastern 

 parts of the state. 



Cooke records having captured two specimens of the insect in 

 California in 1882. There are specimens in the National Museum 

 from the District of Columbia, Kentucky and Canada, and in the 

 LeConte collection at Cambridge, Mass., from Georgia, and it is also 

 known to occur in Michigan. Thus, it seems to be quite widely 

 distributed throughout the eastern, central and extreme western por- 

 tions of the United States, and also occurs in Canada. It doubtless 

 breeds freely in the wild haws in these regions, and in the East has 

 unfortunately developed an especial liking for the quince, and often 

 attacks the pear also. It has not been recorded as breeding in apples, 

 and, although the curculios will feed freely on apples in confinement, 

 efforts to induce them to breed in apples have failed. Thus, during 

 years when there are few or no quinces, the insect doubtless breeds in 

 wild haws or pears, rather than in neighboring apple orchards. 



*It is quite probable, as Riley stated in his Third Missouri Rept., that Dr. 

 Fitch had met with the grubs of this insect in haws in New York as early 

 as 1859, but had mistaken them for those of the plum curculio. The con- 

 text in Dr. Fitch's "Address on the Curculio and Black Knot on Plum 

 Trees." (Trans. N. Y. State Agr. Soc. for 1859, p. 609), indicates this fact. 

 The plum curculio has rarely, if ever, been recorded as breeding in haws, 

 while these fruits are the natural food of the quince curculio. 



