HISTORY. 15 
Latin origin. It was used by Cato in De Re Rustica (p. 92), 201 B.C., 
and other writings; also by Palladius, A. D. 210; by Pliny; and by 
other Roman authors. It is the name of a well-known comedy of 
Plautus. In its Latin signification the curculio means a cornworm 
or weevil, and probably for this reason the name was adopted by 
Linneus in his Systema Nature, as the genus for a large and di- 
verse assemblage of species of snout beetles. While the Linnean 
genus Curculio has long since fallen into disuse by entomologists, the 
various species having been distributed into other genera, the word 
is retained in the English vocabulary and applied with qualifying 
adjectives as the common names of several species of snout beetles, 
e. g., the plum curculio, rhubarb curculio, poplar curculio, willow 
curculio, etc. As between the numerous common names applied to 
the insect under consideration, plum curculio has perhaps become 
most firmly established from frequent use in the economic literature 
of the past 20 or 25 years, and the name has recently been adopted 
by the American Association of Economic Entomologists. It is 
nevertheless misleading since, while partial to plums, the curculio 
also injures numerous other fruits. In fact its omnivorous habits 
as regards stone and pome fruits make it unique among a group 
of weevils which as a rule confine themselves to one or but few food 
plants. 
HISTORY. 
Few American insects have been more written about than the 
plum curculio. The earliest statement referring to this insect which 
we have seen is in a letter from Peter Collinson to John Bartram, 
evidently in response to a complaint by Bartram in an earlier com- 
munication. Under date of February 3, 1736, Collinson wrote: “I 
never heard it was insects that annoyed your plums, apricots, and nec- 
tarines. If they are, water that has tobacco leaves soaked in it will 
kill them by making a basin around the trees, watering them fre- 
quently with the water.’’ This reference considered alone might 
appear to refer to the peach-tree borer. Subsequent correspond- 
ence, however, between Bartram and Collinson, cited under history 
of remedies (p. 156), indicates that probably the curculio was the 
insect referred to. There are, later, undoubted references to this 
insect in the correspondence between these two gentlemen, which are 
quoted on page 156. It would appear that the curculio had become 
quite troublesome, at least in the environs of Philadelphia, before 
1750. 
A note by the Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, under date of May 
18, 1749, and quoted in the bibliography, leaves no doubt of the 
prevalence of the species in the territory about which he was writing, 
namely, New Jersey. The original description of this species by 
Herbst in 1797 indicates that by that time the insect had found its 
