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the facts [ have given it will easily be seen that it is a family of very small and insignifi- 
cant beetles that we have been dealing with, but although small, the amount of damage it 
does is larger than that done by any other family of Leet'es. Now, in the case of the 
larger wood-boring beetles they do not do damage, but good, and if it were not for them 
in a short time we should have no forests. That seems rather a wild statement to make, 
but looked at carefully it is a very true one. In the immenge forests of Brazil, Mexico 
and southern countries, numbers of trees have been blown down by storms, and if there 
were nothing to assist the process of decay there would be such a tangled mass of fallen 
trees that nothing else could grow on the space covered by them. But the wood-boring 
beetle steps in and deposits its eggs on the bark of the tree, and in a very short time the 
whole mass of timber is perforated thoroughly by these immense bettles, places for moisture 
are formed, and in a very short space of time the tree decays and is reduced to dust, which, 
mingling with the earth, induces new vegetable life. I do not think, however—certainly 
I have never observed it—that any of the curculionide do the least good. I do not 
know that there is one good point about the family curculionidze at all; the only beetle 
_I know of that has been made of any use to mankind is one of the larger curculio, the 
grubs of which are eaten by the natives of some countries, and deemed very delicious. 
Generally then they are injurious, and being such a small beetle it escapes the eyes of 
many insectivorous birds, and at any rate it is a very hard, unpalatable thing. I think 
they are the hardest shelled beetles in existence, taking a small, hard steel needle to 
pierce them. There is one thing in connection with this subject that needs alteration ; 
there has been little or no individual research either in this country orin England. We 
find in the reports of the entomological societies of Canada and other countries that the 
same facts are being brought before us dozens of times, and these facts are the result of 
the researches of men who lived a number of years ago, and, after all, many of the papers 
written by able men are but recapitulations of the work done by others. Now, this is 
not the case in other branches of entomology, and I think it a pity it should be allowed 
to be so with Curculionide. To give one instance of the small amount of interest and 
study that has been devoted to curculionide in Canada, I may state this: During my 
stay in England 1 visited some twenty of its best museums, In the South Kensington 
branch of the British museum, which contains the best entomological collection in the 
_world, our Curculionids were represented fairly. In the Oxford museum, the second 
finest in the world, there were barely one hundred specimens of our Canadian Curculionidae. 
In other countries the Curculionide were better represented in their larger and 
more showy insects, but there were only about one hundred specimens out of our five 
hundred species. It is my wish, if I can secure help from any entomologist in Canada, 
to send over this fall a fairly representative collection of our Curculionidae, and [ only 
hope I shall be able to get that help. I cannot do very much myself, being unable to 
move from one locality to another, and I hope I shall have help from everyone who is 
able to give it, and if such persons will only try to assist me in getting specimens I shall 
be doubly obliged. 1 think it is only right that the Dominion should be better repre- 
sented than it is at present in England. 
Mr. Morpex.—Does the ordinary plum curculio attack cherries and pears, or is it a 
different variety. 
Mr, Brtturs.—The ordinary plum curculio this yersr destroyed nearly ninety per 
cent. of the crop of a cherry tree. The tree was unsprayed and not protected in any 
way, being one | left in that way as an experiment. ‘This tree was situated some two 
hundred yards from any plum tree. 
Mr. Morpex.—What about pears ? 
Mr. Brttups.—I have specimens in a bottle here; I think there were about thirty 
pears on the tree, and none had less than one, and some three or four bites of the plum 
eurculio, 
The Secretary.—It also affects the apple ? 
Mr. Bitturs.—Yes, that isa pretty well known fact, but I have not made any ex- 
periments. 
