thp: curculio, or plum-weevil. 77 



that tlie cherry-worm^ so called, which is veiy common in this 

 fruit when gathered fi'om the tree, produces, at maturity, the 

 same curculio 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 Burnett, of Southborough, the 

 author of two interesting articles on the plum-weevil,* sent 

 to me, in the summer of 1839, some specimens of the in- 

 sect, in the chrysalis state, which were raised from the small 

 grubs in apples ; and, since that time, I have seen the same 

 gnibs in apples, pears, and quinces, in this vicinity. They 

 are not to be mistaken for the more common apple-worms^ 

 from which they are easily distinguished by their inferior 

 size, and by their want of feet. In 1831, Mr. Thomas Say, 

 in a note on the plum-weevil, stated that it " depredates on 

 the plum and peach and other stone-fruits ; " and that his 

 '" kinsman, the late excellent William Bartram, informed him 

 it also destroys the English walnut in this country." f 



Observers do not agree concerning some points in the 

 economy of this insect, such as the time required for it to 

 complete its transformations, the condition and place wherein 

 it passes the winter, and the agency of the curculio in pro- 

 ducing the warts or excrescences on plum and cherry trees. 

 The average time passed by the insect in the ground, during 

 the summer, has appeared to me to be about three weeks ; 

 but the transformation may be accelerated or retarded by 

 temperature and situation. It has also been my impression 

 that the late broods remained in the ground all winter, and 

 that from them are produced the beetles which sting the fruit 

 in the following spring. Dr. Burnett's observations coincide 

 with this opinion. According to him, the insect " under- 

 goes transformation in about fifteen or twenty days, in the 

 month of June or fore part of July ; but all the larv«, (as 



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

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

 Farmer, Vol. XXII. p. 49, August IG, 1843, and in the Transactions of the Jlassa- 

 chusetts Horticultural Society, for 1843-1846, p. 18. 



t Descriptions of Curculionites, p. 19 (Bvo, New Harmony, 1831). 



