ATTACKING THE FRUIT. 



133 



FiQ. 141. 



carnivorous iDsects. Some of the smaller iusectivorous birds 

 are also said to devour this insect both in the larval and 

 in the pupal condition. 



No. 59. — The Apple Curculio. 



Anthonomus qiiadrigibbus Say. 



This is a small beetle, a little smaller than a plum curculio, 

 of a dull-brown color, having a long, thin snout, which sticks 

 out more or less horizontally, and cannot be folded under the 

 body, as is the case with many species of Curculio. This 

 snout in the female is as long as the body ; in the male it is 

 about half that length. In addition to the prominent snout, 

 it is furnished with four conspicuous brownish-red humps to- 

 wards the hinder part of its body, from which it takes its 

 specific name, quadrigibbus. Including the snout, its length is a 

 quarter of an inch or more. In the accompanying figure, 141, 

 the insect is magnified ; a rep- 

 resents a back view, b a side 

 view; the outline at the left 

 shows its natural size. Its 

 body is dull brown, shaded 

 with rusty red ; the thorax 

 and anterior third of the wing- 

 covers are grayish. 



This is a native American 

 insect which formerly bred ex- 

 clusively in the wild crabs and haws ; it is single-brooded, 

 and passes the winter in the beetle state. The beetle appears 

 quite early, and the larva may often be found hatched before 

 the middle of June, and in various stages of its growth in 

 the fruit during June, July, and August. 



The beetle with its long snout drills holes into the young 

 apples, much like the puncture of a hot needle, the hole 

 being round, and surrounded by a blackish margin. Those 

 which are drilled by the insect when feeding are about one- 

 tenlh of an inch deep, and scooped out broadly at the bottom ; 



