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COLEOPTERA. 67 



They begin to sting the plums as soon as the fruit is set, and, as 

 some say, continue their operations till the first of August. After 

 making a suitable puncture with their snouts, they lay one egg in 

 each plum thus stung, and go over the fruit on the tree in this 

 way till their store is exhausted ; so that, where these beetles 

 abound, not a plum will escape being punctured. The irritation 

 arising from these punctures, and from the gnawings of the grubs 

 after they are hatched, causes the young fruit to become gummy, 

 diseased, and finally to drop before it is ripe. Meanwhile the 

 grub comes to its growth, and, immediately after the fruit falls, 

 burrows into the ground. This may occur at various times be- 

 tween the middle of June and of August ; and, in the space of a 

 little more than three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its 

 transformations, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. 

 The history of the insect thus far is the result of my own observa- 

 tions ; the remainder rests on the testimony of other persons. 



In an account of the plum-weevil, by Dr. James Tilton of 

 Wilmington, Delaware, published in Mease's "Domestic Ency- 

 clopaedia," under the article Fruit, and since republished in the 

 " Georgical Papers for 1809" of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 Society, and in other works, it is stated, that peaches, nectarines, 

 apples, pears, quinces, and cherries are also attacked by this 

 insect, and that it remains in the earth, in the form of a grub, dur- 

 ing the winter, ready to be matured into a beetle as the spring 

 advances. These statements I have not yet been able to con- 

 firm. It seems, however, to have been fully ascertained by 

 Professor Peck, Mr. Say, and others, in whose accuracy full 

 confidence may be placed, that this same weevil attacks all our 

 common stone-fruits, such as plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots, 

 and cherries ; Dr. Burnett has recently assured me that he has seen 

 this beetle puncturing apples ; and it is not at all improbable that 

 the transformations of some of the grubs may be retarded till the 

 winter has passed, analogous cases being of frequent occurrence. 

 Those that are sometimes found in apples must not be mistaken 

 for the more common apple- worms, which are not the larvae of a 

 weevil. The Rev. F. V. Melsheimer remarks in his Catalogue, 

 that this insect lives under the bark of the peach-tree. Professor 

 Peck raised the same beetle from a grub found in the warty ex- 



