STATE AGRICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 365 



PLUM. FRUIT. 



69. Saddled leaf-hopper, JBythoscopus clitellarius, Say. (Homoptera. Tet- 

 tigoniidas.) 



A small cylindrical slightly tapering leaf-hopper, 0.20 long, 

 black or dark brown, with a bright sulphur-yellow spot like a 

 saddle upon the middle of its back, a band forward of this and 

 also the head and under side pale yellow, the forehead with two 

 black dots. This probably punctures and sucks the juices of the 

 green succulent twigs as well as the leaves, but I have particu- 

 larly noticed it standing upon the fruit stems with its beak inserted 

 therein, extracting the fluids which should go to swell and perfect 

 the fruit. And it would thus seem that these leaf-hoppers, like 

 many other insects, are actuated by a spirit of pure malevolence 

 in making their attack upon that part of the plant where they 

 will do us the most injury, when they might nourish themselves 

 equally as well in places where their harm would be slight. 



AFFECTING THE FRUIT. 



70. Plum weevil, or Curculio, Conotrachelas Nenuphar, Herbst. (Cole- 

 optera. Curculionidae.) 



Making a small crescent-shaped incision upon the side of the 

 young fruit and dropping an egg therein, from which comes a 

 small white footless worm or grub which bores in the fruit, causing 

 it to become diseased and gummy and to drop from the tree, the 

 worm when full grown entering the ground and in three or four 

 weeks coming out in its perfect state, when it is a short thick rough 

 beetle, shaped somewhat like a pear, and with a long snout like 

 an elepliant's trunk hanging down in front, its color dark brown 

 with a broad white or yellow band on the hind part of the wing 

 covers, and small spots of black, white and yellow. Length 0.15 

 to 0.28. For tlie winter residence of this weevil, see insects of 

 ] ear limbs, p. 3-49. See HaiTis's Treatise, p. 66. 



