21 



When the plum is as large as a good-sized pea, the female beetle 

 bores a hole in the side, deposits an egg in it, and then cuts a crescent- 

 shaped slit beside it so as to undermine the egg and prevent its being 

 crushed by the growth of the fruit. The tiny grub that hatches from it 

 buries itself in the green flesh and devours the greater part of it, especi- 

 ally around the stone. The injury causes the plum to fall prematurely to 

 the ground ; the grub then completes its growth, buries itself in the earth, 

 transforms into the chrysalis state and finally develops into a beetle. 



Fig. 33. — Plum curculio : a larva, b pupa, 

 c beetle, d young fruit attacked. 



Fig. 34. — Plum curculio attacking 

 young fruit. 



Spraying with Paris green immediately after the blossoms have fallen will 

 kill a large number of the beetles before the egg-laying is completed. 

 Another method, which many fruit-growers consider more effective, is 

 to jar the trees by sudden blows upon the limbs and catch the beetles 

 which fall on a sheet below ; all that are captured in this way should be 

 destroyed at once before they have time to fly away. This should be 

 dene before and while the trees are in bloom, and be performed morning 

 and evening, when the beetles are more sluggish than in the heat of the 

 day. A further method is to lay pieces of board about the base of the 

 trees and each morning to go around and collect the beetles which have 

 found them a convenient shelter during the chill hours of the night. 

 Whatever plan is adopted, it is all important that all fallen fruit should 

 be daily gathered up and destroyed before the grubs have left them to 

 enter the earth. 



This insect attacks apples, pears, and cherries also, but is most 

 abundant on plums. 



