STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 91 



perfect hootle state, aljove gi-ound, or in the preparatory state, below ground; the 

 very earliest aceounts we have of the Plum Curculio, in this country, differing on these 

 points. Thus, it was believed ]>y Dr. .lames Tilton, of Wilmington, Delaware, who- 

 wrote at the very beginning of the present century, and by Dr. Joel r.urnett, of 

 .Southborough, and M. H. Simpson, of Saxonvllle, Massachusetts, who both wrote 

 interesting articles on the subjet^t, about fifty years afterwards; that it passed 

 the winter in the larval or grub .-tatc, luider ground, and Harris seems to have held the 

 same opinion. ]{)it Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, Massachusetts, in some interesting 

 articles jtublished in 1840 and 18.J0, gave as his conviction that' it hib(;rnates in the 

 beetle state above ground. Dr. Fit(;h, of New York, came to the conclusion that it is 

 two-brooded, the second brood wintering in the larva state in the twigs of pear trees; 

 while Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, who devoted the greater part of a large and expen- 

 sive work to its consideration, decided that it is single-brooded, and that it hiber- 

 nates in the beetle from above gi-ound, and he recently informed me that he still holds 

 to the same opinion. Since the writings of Harris and Fitch, and since the publica- 

 tion of Dr. Trimble's work there have l^eeu other papers published on the subject. 

 The first of these was a tolerably exhaustive article, by Mr. Walsh, which appeared in 

 No. 7 of the 2d Volume of the Practical Entomologid, in which he takes the grounds 

 that the Curculio is single-brooded; though subsequently, on page 67 of his First 

 Annual Report, he came to the very dittcrcnt conclusion that it was double-brooded. 

 In the sunuuer of 1807 I spent Ijetween two and three weeks in Southern Illinois, dur- 

 ing the height of the Curculio season, and closely watched its mana'uverings. From 

 the fact that there was a short period about the middle of July, when scarcely any 

 could Ije caught from the trees, and that after a warm shower they were quite numer- 

 ous, having evidently just come out of the ground, I concluded that the insect was 

 ilouble-brooded, and communicated to the Prairie Farmer of July 27th, 1867, the 

 passage to that elfect, over the signature of "V," which is quoted by Mr. Walsh 

 (Rep., p. 67j, as corroborative of its two-brooded character. Subsequent calculation 

 induced me to change my mind, and 1 afterwards gave it as my opinion, on page 113 of 

 the Transactions of this Society for 1867, that there was but one main brood during the 

 year, and that where a second generation was produced it was the exception. My 

 reasons for this opinion may be found detailed in the Missouri Entomological Report. 

 Finally, our friend. Dr. Hull, of Alton, Illinois, who has had vast personal experience 

 with this insect, read a most valuable essay on the subject, before the meeting of the 

 Alton (111.) Horticultural Society of March, 1868, in which he evidently concludes it is 

 single-brooded, and that it passes the winter, for the most part, in the preparatory 

 .state, under ground; and judging from an article recently published by him in the 

 Prairie Farmer, he yet inclines to the same belief. 



Now, why is it that persons who, it must be admitted, were all capable of correct 

 observation, liave difiered so much on these most interesting points in the economy of 

 our Plum Curculio? Is there any explanation of these contradictory statements? I 

 think there is, and that the great difficulty in the study of this, as well as of many 

 other insects, lies in the fact that we are all too apt to generalize. AVe are too apt to 

 draw distinct lines, and to create rules which never existed in Nature — to sup- 

 pose that if a few insects which we chance to watch are not single -brooded, there- 

 fore the species must of necessity be double-brooded. We forget that Curculios are 

 not all hatched in one day, and, Irom analogy, are very apt to underrate the duration 



