332 REPOKT OF THE SECEETAET OF THE 



Geo. Parmelee of Old Mission. Mich., that he has satisfied 

 himself of the same trait in the natural history of this insect; 

 and I fully convinced myself that such was the normal habit, 

 by repeatedly removing the full grown larva from the fruit and 

 placing it on the surface of the ground, when, in every instance, 

 it would make no attempt to bury itself, but would always 

 transform on the surface. 



THE AMOUNT OF DAMAGE IT DOES. 



The observations that I have been able to make on this 

 insect's Avork in our cultivated orchards are limited, but I 

 think that it attacks with equal relish both summer and 

 winter apples. Whenever a beetle has perfected in the fruit, 

 it cuts quite a large hole for its escape., and these holes are 

 sufficiently characteristic to enable one who has paid attention 

 to the matter to tell with tolerable certainty whether an apple 

 has been infested with the Apple-worm, Plum Curculio, or 

 Apple Curculio, — even after the depredator has left. 



In the southern portion of Illinois and in some parts of 

 Missouri, this insect is very abundant and does much damage 

 to the apple crop ; it occurs in greater or less numbers in most 

 States of the Union; but in other localities again its work is 

 scarcely ever seen, and I am satisfied that the damage it does 

 has been much overrated. AVe can only judge of the future 

 by the past, and though we may expect this insect to increase 

 somewhat with the increase of our orchards, it is folly to sup- 

 pose that it can go on increasing in geometrical ratio ; and the 

 pretty mathematical calculations which are intended to alarm 

 the cultivator at the gloomy prospects of the future, are never 

 made by those who understand the complicated net-work in 

 which every animal organism is entangled, or who rightly 

 understand the numerous influences at work to keep each 

 species Avithin due bounds. Such figures look well on paper 

 but, like air-castles, there is nothing real about them. 



Our apples suffer much more, in many localities, from the 

 gougings of the perfect beetle and the burrowings of the larva 



