66 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



and, in some of our gardens and orchards, the crop of plums 

 is often entirely ruined by the depredations of the grubs, which 

 have been ascertained to be the larvae or young of a small 

 beetle of the weevil tribe, called Jlht/nchcEnus ( Conotrachelus) 

 Nenuphar* the Nenuphar or plum-weevil. This weevil, or 

 cwculio, as it is often called, is a little rough, dark brown, or 

 blackish beetle, looking like a dried bud, when it is shaken 

 from the trees, which resemblance is increased by its habit of 

 drawing up its legs and bending its snout close to the lower 

 side of its body, and remaining for a time without motion, 

 and seemingly lifeless. It is from three twentieths to one fifth 

 of an inch long, exclusive of the curved snout, which is rather 

 longer than the thorax, and is bent under the breast, between 

 the fore legs, when at rest. Its color is a dark brow^n, varie- 

 gated with spots of white, ochre-yellow, and black. The 

 thorax is uneven ; the wing-covers have several short ridges 

 upon them, those on the middle of the back forming two con- 

 siderable humps, of a black color, behind which there is a wide 

 band of ochre-yellow and white. Each of the thighs has two 

 little teeth on the under side. I have found these beetles as 

 early as the thirtieth of March, and as late as the tenth of 

 June, and at various intermediate times, according with the 

 forwardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and 

 have frequently caught them flying in the middle of the day. 

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

 continue their operations to the middle of July, or, as some 

 say, till the first of August. In doing this, the beetle first 

 makes a small crescent-shaped incision, with its snout, in the 

 skin of the plum, and then, turning round, inserts an egg in 

 the w^ound. From one plum it goes to another, until its store 

 of eggs is exhausted ; so that, where these beetles abound, not 

 a plum will escape being stung. Very rarely is there more 

 than one incision made in the same fruit ; and the weevil lays 

 only a single egg therein. The insect hatched from this egg is 



* First described by Herbst, in 1797, under the name of Curculio Nenuphar ; 

 Fabricius redescrlbed it under that of Rhynchcenus Argula; and Dejean has 

 named it Conotrachelus variegatus. 



