50 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



who grow tobacco will also find it profitable to throw the stems around 

 the butts of their trees, as there is good evidence of its being obnox- 

 ious to the moth. 



THE PLUM CUECULIO— Conotrachelus nenuphar, Ilerbst, 



(Coleoptera, Curculionitkc). 

 [Fig. 18.] 



I regret to have to state that Missouri is none the less exempt 

 from the ruinous work of this persistent "Little Turk," than are her 

 sister States, though I have not heard of a single instance where they 

 have been so numerous as they were last summer in Southern 

 Illinois ; for Parker Earie, of South Pass, captured 6,500 from 100 peach 

 trees, during the first six days of May. In every locality which 1 have 

 visited, this beetle is considered the enemy to stone fruit, and though 

 so much has been written about it, I find it necessary to devote a few 

 pages to its consideration, since some of the points in its natural his- 

 tory are not entirely and satisfactorily settled, even yet. There is in 

 fact conflicting evidence from different authors, as to whether it is 

 single or double brooded each year, and as to whether it hybernates 

 principally in the perfect beetle state, above ground, or in the pre- 

 paratory states, below ground; the very earliest accounts that we 

 have of the Plum Curculio, in this country, differing on these points. 

 Thus, it was believed by Dr. James Tilton, of Wilmington. Deleware, 

 who wrote at the very beginning of the present century, and by Dr. 

 Joel Burnett, of Southborough, and M. II. Simpson, of Saxon ville, 

 Massachusetts, who both wrote interesting articles on the subject, 

 about fifty years afterwards ; that it passed the winter in the larval or 

 grub state, under ground, and Harris seems to have held the same 

 opinion. But Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, Massachusetts, in some in- 

 teresting articles published in 1840 and 1850, gave as his conviction 

 that it hybernates in the beetle state above ground. Dr. Fitch, of 

 New York, came to the conclusion that it is two-brooded, the second 

 brood wintering in the larva state in the twigs of pear trees; while 

 Dr. Trimble, of New Jersey, who devoted the greater part of a large 



