206 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



hatch, the form of the insect can he seen through the shell by the aid of a glass. The 

 young insects, on emerging from the shell, burrow and eat their way into the fruit, often 

 nearly making the circuit of the stone before penetrating to it. These grubs or larva 1 

 are sometimes confounded with those of the long-snouted nut beetles that occasionally 

 puncture and place their eggs either within the stone or on its surface. 



Those eggs deposited early in the season are sometimes wholly lost by a few days of 

 succeeding cold weather ; once hatched they are also liable to several casualties — for 

 example : The Columbia and several other varieties of plums, under certain conditions 

 of growth, All the passage made by the larvae with water and drown them. Others are 

 lost by the too premature falling of the fruit, and the larvae it contains by exposure to 

 the sun ; also from other causes, as we shall show further on. 



So hardy are these eurculio larvae that after being sufficiently developed in the fruit, 

 and they have safely effected their entrance into ground which is adapted to their wants, 

 that nearly the whole brood will come forth the following year perfect beetles, to renew 

 their attacks on the products of our orchards. A small per cent, of these eurculio larvae 

 become pupa late in the fall or winter, and come forth with the first warm days in the 

 spring, and deposit their eggs as early as the first to the tenth of May. Twice, however, 

 within the last twenty-two years, their first punctures were made May 28th and June 

 2d. In both of these years the eurculio came forth at the usual period, but delayed 

 operations, as we suppose, in consequence of the cold. So great is their power of repro- 

 duction, that, were the whole country one vast orchard, they would in one or two years, 

 at most, so increase as to occupy the whole. Just in proportion as we increase the 

 conditions needed for them, just in that proportion do we find them to multiply their 

 numbers. 



Curculios crawl freely and quickly from one part of the tree to another. Before they 

 take to wing they start off at a rapid pace, expanding their wings as they go. They 

 rarely fly, except in the middle of the day, though in very warm nights, occasionally 

 one will be attracted by and tly into a small light. 



They are very sluggish in their movements in the cool of the morning, and when 

 jarred upon sheets at this time will remain a long while motionless, in appearance a 

 most perfect representation of a dry bud. Later in the day, when jarred from the trees, 

 especially if the weather be hot and the sun shines on them, they will quickly regain 

 their legs and fly away. Of late several eminent entomologists seem to have hastened 

 to the conclusion that all the larvae of the eurculio, after leaving the fruit, penetrate to 

 a short depth into the earth, and there, in from twenty to thirty or more days, transform 

 and hyberuate under cover of bark, grass, shingles, &c. (See articles on eurculio, Prac- 

 tical Entomologist, page 75 and 31.) 



That curculios never hyberuate above ground, we are not prepared to deny, having 

 ourselves in two or three instances found them late in the season under cover of bark. 

 In this locality, however, that a large per cent, of them do really remain in the earth 

 during winter, at the depth of fifteen to thirty-six inches, is to our mind a well estab- 

 lished fact. During the month of January, 1868, while my workmen were excavating a 

 ditch under peach trees, I found two well developed larvae of the eurculio at the depth 

 of twenty-seven and thirty-eight inches, and during the month of April last, under some 

 cherry trees which had been neglected the preceding year, I found two perfect curculios 

 nearly ready to come forth, four pupae and quite a number of larvae, some of them not 

 more than one-half or two-thirds grown, and others about to enter the pupa state. 



