THE PEACH. 263 



main brood during the year, and that where a second genera- 

 tion was produced, it was the exception, (Frans. Ills. State 

 Hort. Soc, 1867, p. 113.) Finally, Dr. E. S. Hull, of Alton, 

 Illinois, who has vast personal experience with this insect, 

 read a most valuable essay on the subject before the meeting 

 of the Alton (Ills.) Horticultural Society, of March, 1868, in 

 which he evidently concludes, they are single brooded, and 

 that they pass the winter, for the most part, in the prepara- 

 tory states, under ground. 



Now, why is it that persons, who, it must be admitted, were 

 all capable of correct observation, have differed so much on 

 these most interesting points in the economy of our plum cur- 

 culio ? Is there any explanation of these contradictory state- 

 ments ? I think there is, and that the great difficulty in the 

 study of this as well as many other insects, lies in the fact 

 w^e are all too apt to generalize. We are too apt to draw dis- 

 tinct lines, and to create rules which never existed in nature : 

 to suppose that if a few insects which we chance to watch are 

 not single brooded, therefore the species must of necessity be 

 double brooded. We forget that curculios are not all hatched 

 in one day, and from analogy are apt to underrate the dura- 

 tion of the life of the curculio in the perfect beetle state. 

 Besides, what was the exception one year, may become the 

 rule the year following. In breeding butterflies and moths, 

 individuals hatched from one and the same batch of eggs on 

 the same day, will frequently, some of them, perfect them- 

 selves and issue in the Fall, while others will pass the winter 

 in the perfect state, and not issue until the Spring ; and in 

 case of. a green worm that is found on raspberry leaves, and 

 which passes the winter under ground, and develops into a 

 four winged fly {Selandria ruhi of my manuscript) in the 

 Spring ; I have known a diff'erence of three months to occur 

 between the issuing of the first and last individuals of the 

 same brood, all the larvae of which had entered the ground 

 within three days. It is also a well recorded fact, both iu this 

 country and in Europe, that in 1868, owing probably to the 

 unusual heat and drouth of the Summer, very many insects 

 which are well known to usually pass the Winter in the im- 



