INSECTS INFESTING THE PLUM TREE. 143 



CHAPTER LXXXI. 



The Plum Gouger. 



{Anthonomus prunicida — Walsh.) 



Synonym . — Coccotorus scutellaris — Lee. 



Order, Coleoptera ; Family, Curculionid^. 



[Living in the pits of plums ; a small milk-white footless 

 grub with a yellowish-white head, passing through its trans- 

 formations within the pit, and finally producing a brown snout- 

 beetle, having the thorax iiale-yellow.] 



This insect, as its name indicates, seems to confine its attacks 

 wholly to the plum. The female gnaws a hole into the fruit 

 and deposits an egg therein; as soon as hatched, the young 

 larva makes its way directly to the pit or stone, which it enters 

 and feeds upon the kernel ; after attaining its full growth, it 

 cuts a round hole through the shell of the pit — which is now 

 quite hard— and having thus prepared a place of exit, it casts 

 off its skin and appears in the pupa form, from which the per- 

 fect insect issues in the course of a few weeks. 



The larva of this species can easily be distinguished from 

 that of the plum curculio by having the under part of its body 

 white, this part being reddish-brown in the curculio. 



The perfect insect (Fig. 120) is about one and a half lines 

 long, exclusive of the snout, which is not much longer than 

 the thorax ; the latter is pale yellow, as are also the legs ; the 

 wing-cases are brown, with a dull grayish tint, and are desti- 

 tute of tubercles. — Walsh and Riley. 



Fig. 120. — Plum Gouger, enlarged — col- Fig, 120. 



ors, yelloAv and grayish-brown. 



In 1882 I received specimens of plums) 

 in the pits of which was a small grub, 

 but failed to rear the perfect insect, there- 

 fore cannot say if this species is found 

 here. 



RexMedies. — Use Nos. 109 and 110. 



