202 GENUINE SNOUT-BEETLES. 



save the fruit. Yet as a very general rule more is claimed for 

 such proposed remedies than is warranted by facts, and many of 

 the measures have not proved very satisfactory. This is especial- 

 ]', true of the application of Paris-green and London-purple, 

 which, with the Bordeaux mixture, are nowadays a sort of cure- 

 all. All these substances are of great value, hut as far as the 

 "Little Turk" is concerned we have to depend for success very 

 largely upon other methods, which, though requiring much more 

 labor, are also much more certain. Though so well known, it is 

 perhaps best to give an outline of the life-history of this insect, 

 which is illustrated in Fig. 213. Plate TIT. As the illustration 

 shows, this snout-beetle is less than one-fourth of an inch in 

 length, is of a brown color with four sealingwax-like elevated ex- 

 crescences on the hard wing-covers. The beetles hibernate 

 among all sorts of rubbish, but prefer accumulated leaves and simi- 

 lar substances. Early in spring, and long before the buds of the 

 plum-trees open, they visit the orchards, and eat the tender parts 

 of the tree, such as green bark and buds ; later they eat leaves, 

 flowers and young fruit. Knowing this habit we can kill large 

 numbers of the curculios by spraying the trees before the leaves 

 and flowers appear. This should be done thoroughly, and as the 

 foliage otherwise so very tender as regards arsenical substances 

 is still enclosed, there is no danger of injuring the trees. When 

 the flowers open we should not spray ; it is more or less useless, 

 and we run the risk of killing many honey-bees, which are at- 

 tracted to them, and are very important, as without them but few 

 fruits will set. As soon as the latter have reached the size of a 

 small marble the female curculio commences to deposit her eggs : 

 she makes a crescent-sbaped cut and then separates and elevates 

 a small flap into which the egg is inserted. This peculiar cres- 

 cent-shaped slit has given the insect the name : "Little Turk" ; it 

 is made apparently to deaden the flesh of the fruit, or to delay its 

 rapid growth, which otherwise might injure the enclosed delicate 

 egg. This hatches in a few days, and the whitish larva or worm, 

 also shown in the illustration, bores at once into the interior of 

 the fruit until it reaches its stone, which it never enters, however, 



