STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



103 



more profitable to drive a shouldered spike in the trunk at the right 

 distance from the ground, and the jarring can then always be done on 

 this spike without injury to the tree. 



[Figure 4.] 



Sigalphus Curculio Parasite : (a) male ; (b) female ; (c) antenna. 

 TWO TRUE PARASITES OF THE PLUM CURCULIO. 



Just 10 years ago, in his "Address on the Curculio," delivered at the 

 annual meeting of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, Dr. Fitch gave 

 an account, accompanied with a figure, of a small Ichneumon-fly which 

 he namtd Si o-alp/ms ciircidionis^ and which he believed was parasitic on 

 the Curculio. Before that time no parasite had ever been known to 

 attack this pestilent little weevil, and even up to the present time it is 

 currently believed that no such parasite exists; for unfortunately the evi- 

 dence given by Dr. Fitch was not sufficient to satisfy some of our most 

 eminent entomologists. These parasites were in fact received by him 

 from Mr. D. W. Beadle of St. Cathei-ines, C. W., who had bred them 

 from Black-knot, from which he bred at the same time a certain number 

 of Curculios; but as other worms besides those of the Curculio are like- 

 wise found in Black-knot, we had no absolute proof that this fly was 

 parasitic on the insect in question. Consequently we find that our late 

 Walsh, in his Report as Acting State Entomologist, rather ridicules the 

 idea of its being a Curculio parasite and endeavors to prove that it is par- 

 asitic instead on the lan^a of his Plum Moth {Scjnasia prunivora). But 

 I have this year not only proved that poor Walsh was himself wrong in 

 this particular inference, but that he was equally wrong in supposing his 

 little Plum-moth, so called, to be confined to plums; for I have bred it 

 from Galls {^iiercus frondonsa Bassett) ; from haws, from crab apples 

 and abundantly from tame apples. 



To be brief. Dr. Fitch's Sigalphus is a true parasite on tlie Plum 

 Curculio and I have bred hundreds of the flies from Curculio larvte. The 

 first bred specimens gave me much pleasure, for as soon as I saw they 

 belonged to the same genus as Dr. Fitch's fly, I felt assured that another 

 disputed question was settled. But to make assurance doubly sure, I 

 repeatedly half filled large jars with pure earth, finely sifted so that no 

 living animal remained in it. Into these jars I placed Curculio larvje 



