338 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



being somewhat larger, m^-" opaque-white, and in having a 

 narrow dusky dorsal line ;;:rl a distinct lateral tubercle on 

 each joint. When full grown, which is in a month or more 

 from the time of hatching, it leaves the fruit through a smooth 

 cylindrical hole and burrows two or three inches into the 

 ground. Here, singularly enough, it remains all through the 

 fall, winter, and spring months without changing, — no matter 

 whether it left the fruit as early as the first of August or 

 as late as the first of October. This is the peculiar feature- of 

 the insect, namely, that it invariably passes the winter in the 

 larva state, and does not even assume the pupa state till the 

 forepart of May, or a few days before issuing as a beetle. In 

 this respect it resembles the nut-weevils which infest our 

 hickory- nuts, hazel-nuts, and acorns. In higher latitudes 

 than that of St. Louis, there is evidence that some of the late- 

 hatched larvae do not leave the haws they infest till frost over- 

 takes them, but pass the winter within the fruit as it lies on 

 the frozen ground. The pupa differs only from that of the 

 Plum Curculio in the greater length of the proboscis. 



It will be remembered, perhaps, by many members of this 

 Society, and I have before referred to the fact, that Dr. Fitch 

 supposed the Plum Curculio was two-brooded, and those who 

 have read his " Address " on this insect will readily perceive 

 that he based this opinion on finding what he took to be its 

 larvae in the tender bark of a pear twig late in the fall, and on 

 finding what he similarly mistook for such larvae in haws in 

 winter. Of course we knoAv positively now that the Plum 

 Curculio does not so breed in pear twigs, and it is very evident 

 that what Dr. Fitch took to be Plum Curculio larvae in such a 

 twig, were the young of some other insect, or perhaps even 

 the eggs of some leaf-hopper {Tettigonia) which are generally 

 placed in the position described by him. But though this 

 first error of Dr. Fitch's has been explained away, the second 

 never has till now, when we may assume, with great reason, 

 that the larvae which misled the Doctor, and Avhich were found 



