MICHIGAX STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



319 



bruisiBg of the tender bark. The former custom is by far the 

 best, as we are enabled to give the tree a sharp, vibrating rap 

 with the bare, hard wood. Secondly, if the mallet is dispensed 

 with and the tree is bumped with the machine, — a method 

 which certainly has the advantage of expedition, — it will be 

 found altogether more profitable to drive a shouldered spike 

 in the trunk at the right distance from the ground, and the 

 jarring can then always be done on this spike, without injury 

 to the tree. 



f Figure 4.] 



Sigalphus Cnrcniio Parasite ; (a) male ; (6) female; (c) antenna. 

 TWO TRUE PARASITES OF THE PLUM CURCULIO. 



Just ten years ago, in his *'•' Address on the Curculio,'' deliv- 

 ered at the annual meeting of the N. Y. State Agricultural 

 Society, Dr. Fitch gave an account, accompanied with a figure, 

 of a small Ichneumon-fly which he named Sigalphus Curcu- 

 lionis, and which he believed was parasitic on the Curculio. 

 Before that time no parasite had ever been known to attack 

 this pestilent little weevil, and even up to the present time it 

 is currently believed that no such parasite exists, for unfortu- 

 nately the evidence given by Dr. Fitch was not sufficient to 

 satisfy some of our most eminent entomologists. These para- 

 sites were in fact received by him from Mr. D. W. Beadle of 

 St. Catharines, C. W., who had bred them from Black-knot, 

 from which he bred at the same time a certain number of 

 Curculios ; but as other worms besides those of the Curculio 

 are likewise found in Black-knot, we had no absolute proof 



