Io8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Darwinian hypothesis of development, and who believe that life is slow^ly 



undergoing change and modification to-day just as it ever has since it had 

 an existence on this Earth, For my own part, nothing has ever appeared 

 more absurd than the direct creation of something out of nothing, and I 

 would as soon believe that we all dropped full grown from the clouds, 

 just as we are here to-day — instead of being brought into the world 

 bjr natural means and gradually developing into manhood and woman- 

 hood — or that we have the same habits as our barbarous ancestors had, 

 as to believe that the animal life about us is now as it was in the begin- 

 ning! Therefore, though these Curculio parasites may have existed in 

 this country long ere the white man first beheld its shores, yet they may 

 only have acquired the habit of preying upon the Curculio within the 

 last comparatively few years. Moreover, much benefit may be derived 

 from their artificial propagation and dissemination, and — Utopian as the 

 scheme may appear to you — I intend next year, Deo volente, to breed 

 enough of the first mentioned species to send at least a dozen to every 

 county seat in Missouri, and have them liberated into some one's peach 

 orchard. By this means I hope to spread them all over the State, and if 

 in future years you Suckers should find that our peach growers are, by its 

 aid, able to get a fair crop of peaches every year while yours are con- 

 stantly destroyed by Mrs. Turk, our State Government may condescend 

 to send across the Mississippi a fe^v thousand pairs of the little Sigalphus 

 for the trifling consideration of $i.oo per pair! If the money derived 

 from this new branch of industiy should be safely set aside in the vaults 

 at Jeflerson City, until sufficient has accumulated to erect in St. Louis a 

 fire-proof building for a museum of Natural History, and Agricultural 

 and Geological rooms, there would be at least as much prospect of get- 

 ting such a building as there seems to be now ! 



THE APPLE CURCULIO. 



{Antkonomus quadrigihbus. Say.) 



" Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good !" 



This injunction of St. Paul applies with just as much force to us to- 

 day, as it did in centuries past to the Thessalonians. In what has been said 

 above about the Plum Curculio we have had abuiadant opportunity of 

 testing the soundness of the old proverb, and in ascertaining the histoiy 

 of the Apple Curculio, wloich I am about to give you, it was very neces- 

 sary to bear the advice in mind. It often takes years to undo the asser- 

 tions of men who are in the habit of talking glibly of that which they 

 really know nothing about, and I ought to comment severely on what has 

 been said about this insect ; but I refrain from doing so, in this case, lest 

 it be said that my words are prompted from personal considerations. I shall 

 therefore content myself with a plain narrative of this insect's habits. 



First then, let us explain the differences between the perfect states of 

 this insect and the Plum Curculio, that any one of you may distinguish 

 between them. 



