Report of the State Entomologist 



289 



Fig. 19.— The plum eurcuuo, CoN- 



OTRACHELUS NENUPHAR: «, the 



larva; 5, the pupa: o, the beetle; 

 </, a plum with the crescent cut 



This notorious pest of the fruit-grower, represented in Figure 19, 

 has not been noticed at any length in these reports. In the admirable 

 series of fourteen annual reports by Dr. Fitch, my predecessor, in 

 which are given extended accounts of 

 the larger number of our more injurious 

 insect enemies, it was simply named 

 and characterized among the insects 

 infesting the plum tree — the reader 

 being referred, for further information 

 upon it, to the writings of Dr. Harris. 

 It has, however, been so frequently 

 written of and figured in agricultural 

 journals, and discussed in the meetings 

 of farmers' clubs and horticultural 

 societies, that. the present reference to 

 it is simply for the purpose of noticing 

 and putting in the hands of the fruit-growers of New York the two 

 best measures, so far as known, for its control. Above are noted a 

 few of the principal publications relating to the insect, which will 

 give all needed information of its life-history, habits, food-plants, etc., 

 to those who may desire the knowledge. The last named publication, 

 by Dr. Riley and Mr. L. O. Howard, is quite full, covering not only all 

 that is of special moment in the other writings named, but about all 

 that is known of the insect and of the best approved methods of deal- 

 ing with it, up to the present time. It treats at length of the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the species, its food-plants, habits and natural 

 history (four pages), its natural enemies, remedies (twelve pages), 

 and experiments in rearing the insect. This valuable paper forms a 

 portion of Dr. Riley's Entomological Report for the year 1888, and is 

 contained in the Annual Report of the Department of Agriculture for 

 that year. From the very large edition of this report annually 

 printed by order of Congress, copies may doubtless be obtained, 

 gratuitously, by making proper request of the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, at Washington. 



The Remedies for Curculio Attack. 

 The remedies and preventives that have been recommended for 

 this insect in the various writings upon it would aggregate several 

 volumes. Among them, to cite a few, are the following: dusting the 

 foliage with air-slaked lime; sprinkling with lime-wash; jarring the 

 beetles from the tree; trapping by chips or pieces of wood or bark dis- 

 tributed beneath the tree; attracting to bottles of sweetened water hung 

 among the branches; repelling by strongly odorous substances placed 



