164 THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
The codling moth and curculio were for a long time confused in 
the minds of many fruit growers and more or less the subject of debate 
in the journals of the day. The following, by N. Darling, from the 
Cultivator, December, 1840, page 190, is illustrative of this fact: 
In the September number of the Cultivator (p. 136) you say in answer to a corre- 
spondent that ‘‘the worm in the apple as well as in the plum and cherry is a species 
of curculio.” Also, that ‘‘the worm with the fruit, falls upon the ground, in which 
the worm takes up its abode in the chrysalis state, until revivified and changed by 
the spring, it issues a perfect insect. 
I am well convinced there is a mistake here, in two particulars: Ist, as to the worm 
in apples being a curculio; 2nd, as to the curculio continuing in the ground till spring. 
In 1831, seeing it stated in all the books that the curculio, in its chrysalis state, 
remained in the ground during winter, I undertook to verify the fact by actual experi- 
ment. The result was communicated to the ‘‘New York Farmer” (Vol. IV, p. 178- 
179). But as many of your readers have probably not seen that book, you may do a 
service by publishing an extract from it. 
I put some moist earth into a tumbler, about the first of June and placed about 20 
small peaches, containing worms, upon the earth, and covered the tumbler with a 
piece of glass. June 30th, the worms had all left the peaches and had all crawled into 
the earth below. July the 7th, the worms had divested themselves of their skin, 
without having formed a shell or cocoon, and were nearly changed to bugs. At this 
time they were white, and showed upon the breast the soft rudiments of the proboscis, 
legs, and wings. These parts had not attained their full size, and appeared immovable: 
One insect, however, had completed his metamorphosis and was a perfect bug, of a 
mahogany color. All have since left the earth of their own accord, having finished 
their change, and are now (July 19th) creeping about the tumbler and feeding on a 
plum leaf. On the 10th of July I opened the ground under a peach tree and found 
the insects in great numbers from two to four inches beneath the surface, in all stages 
of their metamorphosis. July 19th, I found one in the earth under an apple tree, but 
could find none under peach trees. It appears then that this insect retreats into the 
earth about the first of June, where it divests itself of its skin, and changes into a bug 
before the 19th of July, by which time it leaves the earth. What becomes of the bug 
from July to May following, remains to be discovered. 
The curculio is not the only insect that produces the worm in our fruits. I stated 
above that about twenty peaches were placed in the tumbler. In the earth under 
them were six small, oval cocoons, thick strong and smoothly spun, which contain 
worms that manifest no approach toward a change. The same cocoons are also found 
under peach trees. The worms in these envelopes are different from those of the cur- 
culio; they are smaller; they are white throughout;'! while the larvee of the curculio 
have orange colored heads. There is reason for the belief that the larvee of the curcu- 
lio, all or most of them, leave the various fruits in which they are deposited as early 
as the beginning of July, and that the worms found in fruits after that time, have a 
different parent. Some years ago, I preserved a worm from a Vergalieu pear, which 
produced a gray miller. Last November a worm from a Newton Pippin placed itself 
in a cavity on a board, covered itself with a web, and remained till April when it pro- 
duced a gray miller like that produced from the pear. 
I continued my observations during that summer, and sent another communication 
to the New York Farmer (Vol. IV, p. 248), from which the following is an extract: 
I have said there is reason for the belief that the larvee of the curculio, all or most of 
them, leave the various fruits in which they are deposited as early as the beginning of 
1 Probably (Porizon) Thersilochus conotracheli Riley, a parasite of the curculio, 
