STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. II5 



by him on the hawthorn, but until I bred it this sprino^ nothing was 

 known of its larval liistory. It is a somewhat larger insect than the 

 Plum Curculio, has a comparatively longer snout and is very broad 

 shouldered; thus tapering just the opposite way to the Apple Curculio. 

 Its general color is a tolerably uniform ash-gray, mottled more or less 

 with ochre-yellow, dusky and whitish, and it has a dusky somewhat 

 triangular spot at the base of the thorax above, and seven distinct narrow 

 longitudinal elevations on the wing-covers, with two rows of punctures 

 between each. 



This beetle differs further from the others, in the fact that it does not 

 appear, even in the latitude of St. Louis, till about the first of June, and 

 I have had its larvie of the previous year in the ground in May when 

 the newly hatched larvie of the Plum Curculio were already working 

 destruction in the fruit. In some of the more Northern States it would 

 not appear till the middle of July. 



ITS TRANSFORMATIONS AND HABITS. 



This snout-beetle does not make a crescent like the Plum Curculio; 

 but, like the Apple Curculio, makes a direct puncture for the reception 

 of its egg, the hole being somewhat larger than that of the latter, and 

 the bottom of the cavit\' similarly enlarged and gnawed, so as to form a 

 neat bed for the egg. The egg is very similar to that of the Plum Cur- 

 culio, and hatches in a few days after being deposited. In all probability 

 it also swells and enlarges somewhat before hatching. The lai-va works 

 for the most part near the surface of the fruit and does not enter to the 

 heart. It is of the general form of that of the Plum Curculio, and 

 differs principally in being somewhat larger, more opaque-white, and in 

 having a naiTow dusky dorsal line and a distinct lateral tubercle on 

 each joint. When full grown, which is in a month or more from the 

 time of hatching, it leaves the fruit through a smooth cylindrical hole 

 and burrows two or three inches into the ground. Here, singularly 

 enough, it remains all through tlie fall, winter, and spring months without 

 changing — no matter whether it left the fruit as early as the first of 

 August or as late as the first of October. This is the peculiar feature of 

 the insect, namely, that it invariably passes the winter in the larva state, 

 and does not even assume the pupa state till the fore part of May or a 

 few days before issuing as a beetle. In this respect it resembles the 

 nut-weevils which infest our hickory-nuts, hazel-nuts, and acorns. In 

 higher latitudes than that of St. Louis there is evidence that some of the 

 late hatched larvae do not leave the haws they infest till frost overtakes 

 them, but pass the winter within the fruit as it lies on the frozen ground. 

 The pupa differs only from that of the Plum Curculio in the gi'eater 

 length of the proboscis. 



It will be remembered, perhaps, by many members of this Society, 

 and I have before referred to the fact, that Dr. Fitch supposed the Plum 

 Curculio was two-brooded, and those who have read his " Address " on 

 this insect will readily perceive that he based this opinion on findingf 

 what he took to be its larvae in the tender bark of a pear twig late in the 



