INSECTS ATTACKING LARGE FKUfTS. 



PLUM GOUGER. 



{Coccotorus scutellaris Lee; Order, Coleoptera.) 



Dimpiosls. — Much as for Plum Curculio ; diftering in this, that 

 there is no crescent-shaped split in the hanging or fallen plum, 

 and that the grub within the fallen plum will be found within the 

 kernel (rarel}^ so with Conotrachelua). Plums attacked by the 

 gouger become gummy and diseased, but do not so readily dro}) 

 to the ground as when attacked by Co)iotrachelus. 



Description and Life-history. — The adult gouger is a "snout- 

 beetle " about one fourth of an inch long, yellowish in color (es- 

 pecially on thorax and legs), and without humps on the back, as 

 with Conotrachelm. It appears about the 

 same time as Conotrachelm, and deposits its 

 eggs in the young fruit. A small, round hole 

 is made, instead of a crescent-shaped slit. 

 The young larva soon hatches, and burrows 

 straight for the kernel, through the soft 

 shell of which it penetrates, and feeds upon 

 the contents until full-grown. "The larva fig. 49. pIumGouher. 

 is of a milk-white color, with a large, horny, 

 yellowish-white head, and jaws tipped with brown." The pupal 

 stage is passed within the plum stone, from which the mature 

 beetle escapes in August or September. "While the normal 

 habit of the Plum Curculio is to feed on the flesh outside the plum 

 stone, which latter it only occasionally penetrates, the Plum Gouger 

 lives and matures within." The insect hibernates in the adult or 

 beetle stage. 



Remedies. — Jarring in the manner prescribed for the Plum 

 Curculio is pretty effective ; these beetles do not drop so readily, 

 however, as the curculios. The gongers also take wing more 

 readily, and thus may escape. In fact, this pest is decidedly more 

 difficult to deal with than the other, but it is rarely as numerous, 

 and is by no means so widely spread. 



Kansas Notes. — "The Plum Gouger seems to be unknown in 

 the Eastern States, or, at least, is not common there; but it is 

 very generally distributed throughout the valley of the Missis- 

 sippi" (Riley). 



