COLEOPTERA. 67 



a little whitish grub, destitute of feet, and very much like a 

 maggot in appearance, except that it has a distinct, rounded, 

 light brown head. It immediately burrows obliquely into the 

 fruit, and finally penetrates to the stone. The irritation, 

 arising from the wounds and from the gnawings of the grubs, 

 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 falling of the fruit, quits 

 the latter and burrows in the ground. This may occur at 

 various times between the middle of June and of August; 

 and, in about three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its 

 transformations, and comes out of the ground in the beetle 

 form. 



The earliest account of the habits of the plum-weevil, that 

 I have seen, was wTitten by Dr. James Tilton, of "Wilmington, 

 Delaware. It will be found, under the article Fruit, in Dr. 

 James Mease's edition of WiUich's " Domestic EncyclopEedia," 

 published at Philadelphia in 1803. The same account has 

 been reprinted in the " Georgick Papers for 1809" of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other works. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Tilton, this insect attacks not only nectarines, plums, 

 apricots, and cherries, but also peaches, apples, pears, and 

 quinces, the truth of which has been abundantly confirmed by 

 later writers. I have myself ascertained that the cherry-ivorm, 

 so called, which is very common in this fruit when gathered 

 from the tree, produces, at maturity, the same curcuHo as that 

 of the plum ; but, unlike the latter, it rarely causes the stung 

 cherry to drop prematurely to the ground. The late Dr. Joel 

 Burnet, of Southborough, the author of two interesting articles 

 on the plum-weevil,* sent to me, in the summer of 1839, some 

 specimens of the insect, in the chrysalis state, which were 

 raised from the small grubs in apples ; and, since that time, I 

 have seen the same grubs in apples, pears, and quinces, in this 



* New England Farmer, Vol. XVIII, p. 304, March 11, 1840; and Hovey's 

 Magazine of Horticulture, Vol. IX. p. 281, August, 1843, reprinted in the New 

 England Farmer, Vol. XXII, p. 49, August 16, 1843, and in the Transactions of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, for 1843-1846, p. 18. 



