REMEDIAL MEASURES: HISTORICAL. 165 
July, and that the worms found in fruits after that time have a different parent. One 
reason for this belief is, that after that time very little fruit is left in which their eggs 
can be deposited, and what little is left is, for the most part, untouched by the cur- 
culio. Let me present a hasty estimate of cherries, apricots, plums, and peaches, in 
my orchard; on the first of May last, there were probably 200,000; on the first of July, 
the number remaining on the trees did not, I am confident, exceed 500. Of that 500 
perhaps 20, before the middle of August contained a curculio, the rest continued fair. 
I think it would puzzle Dr. Tilton to say where that vast multitude of curculios that 
deposited 199,500 eggs before the first of July, have deposited them since that time, 
if they continue their ravages, and equally puzzling it must be to devise a reason why 
any fruit has escaped—why only 20 eges should be deposited, and 480 peaches left 
undisturbed if this vast swarm of insects have continued its operations ever since the 
first of July. It may be said that they resort to apples and pears. But before the 
first of July the greater part of the apples had also disappeared from the trees; most of 
those remaining have continued since untouched by the curculio. The worms found 
in them are not the larvee of that insect. I have not succeeded in finding a curculio 
ina pearatany time. The only worms that I have found in pears, (and I have taken 
pains to collect a considerable number this summer), are the larvee (I believe) of 
the gray miller mentioned in my former communication. They resemble the larvee 
of the curculio in having orange colored heads, but differ from them by being larger, 
and having a slight tinge of scarlet or brick color upon portions of the body. Instead 
of popping into the ground, they crawl under the rough bark of the trees, inclose 
themselves in a web, and are transformed into a chestnut colored chrysalis. Placed 
in a tumbler with moist earth, they form a web upon the cover of the tumbler, and 
there undergo their change. As none have yet left the chrysalis state, I suppose (as 
was the case with those which I have before preserved) that they do not complete 
their metamorphosis till spring. All the worms found by me in apples, since the 
first of July, have been similar to those in the pear. 
An excellent observer, David Thomas of Cayuga, maintained the prevailing opinion 
in segurd to the worms in our fruits, and with a view to show that I was incorrect, he 
took ‘‘a worm with an orange colored head, from a Bell pear and put it in a tumbler, 
with moist earth,” on the fifth of August. On the eighth of August he took from apples 
“three more worms with orange colored heads, and which appear to be the full grown 
larvee of the curculio—another similar, but only half as long—and two others resembling 
the former with brown heads, but 100 (10?) times less in bulk than the first kind. 
Viewing these last under the microscope, I am satisfied that they also are larvee of the 
common curculio, thus far confirming Dr. Tilton’s remark that this insect continues 
its ravages from May until autumn.” (New York Farmer, Vol. IV, p. 205.) 
In a subsequent communication, in October, with his accustomed candor, he says, 
*“N. Darling may be interested to learn that the worms which I confined ‘with orange 
colored heads,’ left the moist earth, and encased themselves in a web under the cover 
of the tumbler. Soon after one of them came forth a dark gray miller; and I conclude 
there was no curculio among them. Weare therefore indebted to him for the interest- 
ing discovery that the larvee of several insects feed on our fruits; and it is now rendered 
at least probable that Dr. Tilton ascribed too much of this mischief to the curculio.” 
(New York Farmer, Vol. IV, p. 281.) 
With these facts before us I think we may safely conclude that the worm in apples 
is a larva of a gray miller, and not of thecurculio, whichisabug. Also that the curculio 
leaves the ground in a short time after entering it. Its winter retreat has not, within 
my knowledge, yet been discovered. 
If your correspondent will look under the rough bark of his apple trees in October, 
he will find a great, many of the worms from this fruit, which have shut themselves 
in with a web, and are transformed into a chestnut colored chrysalis. If he will care- 
