MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 331 



pomaceous fruits, the apple and the haw, the larger likewise 

 falls and perishes and the smaller hangs on and lives, when 

 infested with similar larva?. Most persons would naturally 

 infer that the larger instead of the smaller fruits would best 

 resist the injurious gnawings of the worm within ; and though 

 we may explain away the paradox by supposing that the 

 longer stem of the smaller fruits prevents the injury from 

 reaching its juncture with the branch, so readily as it does 

 through the shorter stem of the larger fruits; or that the 

 greater weight of the larger fruit causes it to fall so readily ; 

 yet this is only assuming, and I doubt whether the vegetable 

 pathologist will ever be able to show the peculiarities of the 

 fruits which cause the different effects. 



The larva of the Apple Curculio has no legs, and is so 

 hump-backed that it cannot stretch out, and would cut a sorry 

 figure in attempting to descend the tree. Therefore, as the 

 fruit containing it mostly hangs on the tree, the insect is 

 effectually imprisoned. But Nature's ways are always ways of 

 wisdom, and her resources are inexhaustible ! Consequently 

 we find that instead of having to go under ground to trans- 

 form, as does the Plum Curculio, the normal habit of our 

 Apple Curculio is to transform within the fruit. The larva 

 after becoming full fed settles down in a neat cavity, and soon 

 throws off its skin and assumes the i)upa state, when it 

 appears as at Figure 8, a. After remaining in this state from 

 two to three weeks, it undergoes another moult, and the 

 perfect beetle state is assumed. We thus see that the Apple 

 Curculio is cradled in the fruit in which it was born, till it is a 

 perfect beetle, fully fledged, and ready to carry out the different 

 functions and objects of its life. In other words, it never 

 leaves the fruit, after hatching, till it has become a perfect 

 beetle. This fact I have fully tested by breeding a number 

 myself, both from infested crabs which I collected, and from 

 cultivated apples, also infested, that were kindly forwarded to 

 me by Mr. J. B. Miller of Anna, 111. I learn also from Mr. 



