STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 461 



HICKORY. FRUIT. 



the worm from which feeds upon the meat and causes the fruit to 

 fall, the worm finally boring out of the nut and burying itself in 

 the ground to pass its pupa state, the beetle ai:)pearing in July and 

 again the latter part of September, of a dark brown color coated 

 over more or less with rusty whitish scales or short flat hairs, 

 forming spots on the wing covers, which have punctured furrows, 

 the thorax being black and densely punctured, the shanks chest- 

 nut-brown and the beak as long as the body and no thicker than 

 a coarse bristle, polished and of a chestnut-brown color with a 

 blackish tip, straight to its middle and from thence curved to its 

 tip. Length 0.30 to 0.33 exclusive of its beak. 



Worms seldom occur in hickory nuts in the State of New-York, 

 but are common in them at the west. We meet with worms much 

 more frequently in hazelnuts, chestnuts and acorns. A few 

 attempts which I have made to rear some of these worms have 

 been unsuccessful, nor was Dr. Harris any more fortunate in his 

 efforts. Hence we are not certain as to the species which infest 

 these respective fruits. Dr. Harris (Treatise, p. 65) states that he 

 has met with this weevil upon hazelnut bushes. I have found 

 another species similar to this upon the hazelnut, but have met 

 with this species only upon the hickory at a distance of more than 

 a mile from where any hazelnuts were growing. It appears pro- 

 bable, therefore, that this insect is not limited to one kind of nuts. 

 The diseased hickory nuts show a small discolored spot upon their 

 outer sui-face, and with a magnifying glass a round hole can be 

 seen perforated in the centre of this spot, but closed up slightly 

 within the nut. The meat inside is more or less eaten and the 

 cavity thus made is filled with little brown and whitish grains, 

 among which the worm is lying. It is a soft white gruli, wholly 

 destitute of feet, like the other larvae of the weevil family. 



The Plum weevil No. 70 is said by Mr. Say, on the authority 

 of Wm. Eartram, to sometimes destroy the fruit of the walnut. 



