THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 37 



lio. Its general color is a tolerably uuiform ash-gray, mottled more 

 or less with ochre-yellow, dusky and whitish, and it has a dusky 

 somewhat triangular spot at the base of the thorax above, and seven 

 distinct narrow longitudinal elevations on the wing-covers, with two 

 rows of punctures between each. 



This beetle differs further from the others, in the fact that it does 

 not appear, even in the latitude of St. Louis, till about the first of 

 June, and I have had its larvas of the previous year in the ground in 

 May, when the newly hatched larvae of the Plum Curculio were 

 already working destruction in the fruit. In some of the more north- 

 ern States it would not appear till the middle of July. 



ITS TRANSFORMATIONS AND HABITS. 



This snout-beetle does not make a crescent like the Plum Gur- 

 culio; but, like the Apple Curculio, makes a direct puncture for the 

 reception of its egg, the hole being somewhat larger than that of the 

 latter, and the bottom of the cavity similarly enlarged and gnawed, 

 so as to form a neat bed for the egg. The egg is very similar to that 

 of the Plum Curculio, and hatches in a few days after being depos- 

 ited. In all probability it also swells and enlarges somewhat before 

 hatching. The larva works for the most part near the surface of the 

 fruit, and does not enter to the heart. It is of the general form of 

 that of the Pium Curculio, and differs principally in being somewhat 

 larger, more opaque-white, and in having a narrow dusky dorsal line 

 and a distinct lateral tubercle on each joint. When full grown, which 

 is in a month or more from the time of hatching, it leaves the fruit 

 through a smooth cylindrical hole and burrows two or three inches 

 into the ground. Here, singularly enough, it remains all through the 

 fall, winter and spring months without changing — no matter whether 

 it left the fruit as early as the first of August or as late as the first of 

 October. This is the peculiar feature of the insect, namely, that it 

 invariably passes the winter in the larva state, and does not even 

 assume the pupa state till the fore part of May, or a few days before 

 issuing as a beetle. In this respect it resembles the nut-weevils 

 which infest our hickory-nuts, hazel-nuts and acorns. In higher lat- 

 itudes than that of St. Louis, there is evidence that some of the late 

 hatched lame do not leave the haws they infest till frost overtakes 

 them, but pass the winter within the fruit as it lies on the frozen 

 ground. The pupa differs only from that of the Plum Curculio in the 

 greater length of the proboscis. 



I have already referred to the fact that Dr. Fitch supposed the 

 Plum Curculio to be two-brooded, and those who have read his "Ad- 

 dress" on this insect will readily perceive that he based his opinion 

 oti finding what he took to be its larvae in the tender bark of a pear 

 twig late in the fall, and on finding what he similarly mistook for 

 such larvos in haws in winter. Of course, we know positively now 



