HIBERNATION. 129 
week. A total of 529 punctures was made, or an average of 52.9 
per individual, the range being from 8 to 111 punctures. Examina- 
tions as to curculio injury during the fall of many thousands of 
fruits, as apples, European plums, pears, etc., have always shown 
the feeding punctures of the new generation of beetles, and unques- 
tionably the latter feed freely after emergence and until hibernation. 
HIBERNATION. 
The curculio passes the winter in the adult or beetle stage in trash 
in and about orchards, along fences, and in adjacent woods, etc. 
This fact in the life of the insect has been fairly well understood for 
many years. 
Dr. Tilton, in his article in Willich’s Domestic Encyclopedia, in 
1804, expressed the belief that the curculio, like other beetles, 
remains in the form of a grub (or worm) during the winter, ready to 
be metamorphosed to a bug (or beetle) as the spring advanced. 
Dr. Harris,‘ in describing the life history of the insect, as a result 
of his observations, says: 
Meanwhile the grub comes to its growth, and immediately after the fruit falls bur- 
ows into the ground. This may occur at various times between the middle of June 
and of August, and in the space of a little more than three weeks afterwards the insect 
completes its transformations and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. 
He further adds that he has not yet been able to confirm Dr. Tilton’s 
observations, but believes that some grubs may be retarded in their 
transformations, thus passing the winter. 
Dr. Fitch ? states: 
Notwithstanding the volumes that have been written upon it, we do not to this day 
know where the curculio lives‘and what it is doing three-quarters of the year. 
Dr. Trimble (loc. cit., p. 99) writes: 
Many believe that the curculio lives through the winter in the immature condition 
of a grub and undergoes its transformations in the spring. This is not so. In all my 
numerous experiments made year after year, even with the latest-stung apples, the 
grubs become beetles the same season, and as beetles they live somewhere through 
the winter. 
Further, he details the keeping of beetles in flowerpots covered 
with cheesecloth until quite torpid from the cool weather. Speci- 
mens of beetles were found by Dr. Trimble hibernating under the 
shingles of a roof and in the crevices of a stone wall. 
As stated by Walsh, specimens of beetles were found by a Mr. 
Rathyon under bark of cherry and wild cherry in March and Novem- 
ber. Walsh ® states: 
There is little doubt now in my mind that the curculios bred from the fruit of one 
year are the same individuals that puncture the fruit of the following year. 
1Nat. Hist. Mass., p. 67 (1841). 3 Practical Entomologist, p. 77 (1867). 
2Two Addresses, Insects and Curculio (1860), 
17262°—Bull. 103—12——9 
