STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. HI 



work differs remarkably from that of the Phim Curculio, or even of the 

 Codling Moth. Why such is the case it would be difficult to explain! 

 It is one of those incomprehensible facts which at every turn confront 

 the student of Nature's works. We might with equal reason ask why 

 it is that of the two stone fruits, the plum and the cherry, the larger falls 

 and perishes and the smaller hangs on and lives, when infested with the 

 Plum Curculio; and of the two pomaceous fruits, the apple and the 

 haw, the larger likewise falls and perishes and the smaller hangs on and 

 lives, when infested with similar larvaj? Most persons would naturally 

 infer that the larger instead of the smaller fruits would best resist the 

 injurious gnawings of the worm within; and though we may explain 

 away the paradox by supposing that the longer stem of the smaller fruits 

 prevents the injury from reaching its juncture with the branch, so readily 

 as it does through the shorter stem of the larger fruits; or that the greater 

 weight of the larger fruit causes it to fall so readily; yet this is only 

 assuming, and I doubt whether the vegetable pathologist will ever be 

 able to show the peculiarities of the fruits which cause the different 

 effects. 



The larva of the Apple Curculio has no legs and is so hump-backed 

 that it can not stretch out, and would cut a sorry figure in attempting to 

 descend the ti"ee. Therefore, as the fruit containing it mostly hangs on 

 the tree, the insect is effectually imprisoned. But Nature's ways are 

 always ways of wisdom and her resources are inexhaustible! Conse- 

 quently we find that instead of having to go under ground to transform, 

 as does the Plum Curculio, the normal habit of our Apple Curculio is 

 to transform within the fruit. The larva after becoming full fed settles 

 down in a neat cavity, and soon throws off its skin and assumes the 

 pupa state, when it appears as at Figure 8, a. After remaining in this 

 state from two to three weeks it undergoes another moult and the perfect 

 beetle state is assumed. We thus see that the Aj^ple Curculio is cradled 

 in the fruit in which it was born till it is a perfect beetle, fully fledged, 

 and ready to carry out the different functions and objects of its life. In 

 other words, it never leaves the fruit, after hatching, till it has become a 

 perfect beetle. This fact I have fully tested by breeding a number 

 myself both from infested crabs which I collected, and from cultivated 

 apples, also infested, that were kindly forwarded to me by Mr. J. B. 

 Miller of Anna, 111. I learn also from Mr. Geo. Parmelee of Old 

 Mission, Mich., that he has satisfied himself of the same trait in the 

 natural history of this insect, and I fully convinced myself that such was 

 the normal habit, by repeatedly removing the full grown larva from the 

 fruit and placing it on the surface of the ground, when, in every instance 

 it would make no attempt to bury itself, but would always transform on 

 the surface. 



THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE IT DOES. 



The observations that I have been able to make on this insect's work 

 in our cultivated orchards are limited, but I think that it attacks with 

 equal relish both summer and winter apples. Whenever a beetle has 



