STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. tOg 



The snout of the Plum Curculio hangs down like tlie trunk of an 

 elephant; it is short, stout, and does not admit of being stretched out 

 horizontally forwards; and as may be seen by referring to the figure 

 (Fig. I, c) is scarcely as long as the head and thorax together, and can be 

 folded back between the legs, where there is a groove to receive it. The 

 Plum Curculio is broadest across the shoulders and narrows behind, and 

 moreover, the black sealing-wax-like, knife-edged elevations on the back, 

 with the pale band behind them, characterize it at once from all our other 

 fruit-boring snout-beetles. 



[Figure 7.] 



Apple Curculio — (a) natural size ; (b) side view ; (c) back view. 



The Apple, or Four-humped Curculio (Fig. 7) is a smaller insect, 

 with a snout which sticks out more or less horizontally and can not be folded 

 under, and which in the male is about half as long, and in the female is 

 fully as long as the whole body. This insect has narrow shoidders and 

 broadens behind, where it is furnished with four very conspicuous humps, 

 from which it takes its name. It has neither the polished black eleva- 

 tions nor the pale band of the Plum Curculio. In short, it differs gener- 

 ically and never attacks stone fruit. 



The size varies, as you will see from the specimens in the lecturing 

 box, from less than i-30th to nearly i-i2th of an inch, but the colors 

 are quite uniform, the body being ferruginous or rusty-brown, often 

 with the thorax and anterior third of the wing-covers ash-gray — the 

 thorax having three more or less distinct pale lines. 



ITS NATURAL HISTORY. 



This beetle, like the Plum-weevil is a native American insect, and 

 has from time immemorial fed on, and bred in, our wild crabs. It 

 eventually learned to like our cultivated apples and pears, and is also 

 found on quinces. At present it does considerable damage to the crop 

 in some localities, though it yet prefers the wild to the cultivated fruit. 

 Like the Plum-weevil also, it is single-brooded, and winters over in the 

 beetle state, though I was led to believe differently a year ago. With its 

 long thin snout it drills holes into the fruit, much resembling the punc- 

 ture of a hot needle, the hole being round, with a more or less intense 

 black annulation, and an ash-gray centre. Those holes made for food 



