SUMMER MEETING AT BUTLER. 97 



So well acquainted are our orchardists with the habits and charac- 

 ter of these insects that we hesitate in again coming to the front with 

 what, to some at least, has become commonplace. 



The curculio is a small, grayish insect, about one-fifth of an inch 

 in length, having rough wing covers. When magnified, two distinct 

 humps can be seen on each wing case near the middle. Behind these 

 is a band of yellow ochre color, with some whiteish marks. The snout 

 is rather short. The female lays her eggs in the green fruit as soon as 

 formed, and until the stone becomes hardened, the period of opera- 

 tion extending over four or five weeks. In attacking the fruit it alights 

 upon the plum, and with its jaws, which are in the end of its snout, it 

 makes an iocission through the skin of the fruit, then runs its snout 

 obliquely under the skin to the depth of one-sixteenth of an 

 inch, moving it backward and forward until a sufficient cavity 

 is formed to receive the egg. She now turns around and 

 deposits the egg in the orifice, then turns, and with her snout 

 pushes the egg to the end of the passage. Her next move is to cut a 

 crescent-shaped slit just above the cavity containing the egg deposited, 

 and then press the flesh of the fruit down upon the cavity. This opera- 

 tion is doubtless to prevent the development of the fruit that would 

 otherwise take place at this point and possibly drawn out the larva 

 before being able to take care of itself. About five minutes are occu- 

 pied in the deposit of each egg. Some estimate that the curculio has 

 the capability of laying at least one hundred eggs. 



The egg is of an oblong oval form, of a pearly white color, and may 

 be seen with the naked eye. Lift the cover with the point of a knife, 

 and you will see it if not already hatched. Three or four days is about 

 the time taken for them to hatch. 



The young larva is a soft footless grub, with a horny head. It 

 feeds at once upon the fruit, growing as it channels its way to the stone, 

 around which it feeds until about: one-third of an inch in lenth, or un- 

 til grown, which it takes some three or four weeks to accomplish. 



The irritation caused by the insect to the plum causes it to fall to 

 the ground usually before the larva is full grown. When it has fully 

 matured, it leaves the fruit and enters the ground, where it changes to 

 the chrysolis state, and in three weeks more transforms into a beetle, 

 and makes its wa^ to the surface and is free. 



The insect is single brooded and hibernates in secluded places. 

 During very warm days the insect takes wing readily. But usually in 

 the morning and evening they are dull and stupid, and owing to this 



II. R.— 7 



