90 



this matter. I also remark in the Prairie Farmer for July 27th, 

 1867, (p. 55,) the following from Cobden, signed by "V," and evi- 

 dently written shortly after July 20th, 1867. "There were scarcely 

 any Curculios to be found before the recent rains, since which time 

 they have been coming out of the ground in numbers, and when 

 caught their wing-eases are usually quite fresh and soft — a fact which 

 proves that there are exceptions to the rule that this insect is one- 

 brooded; for, while it may invariably be so in the North, it is more 

 frequently two-brooded in this region." 



Still, it must be evident that all these facts are perfectly consist- 

 ent with my old hypothesis, namely, that the Curculio is only one- 

 brooded, and that those that come out of the ground with soft wing- 

 cases in July, live through the winter and are the same individuals 

 that sting the plums in the June of the following year, shortly after 

 which they die, and a more or less brief interval ensues before the 

 July brood makes its appearance. 



Inasmuch as my bare assertion, that there are annually two dis- 

 tinct broods of Curculios, would very probably be disbelieved or dis- 

 puted by authors, who have hitherto held the contrary doctrine, it 

 may be as well — at the risk of being tedious — to give the details of 

 the experiments upon which my conclusions were based. Those who 

 have no taste for such dry things as facts and figures, can skip the 

 two following paragraphs. 



Experiment 1st. — On June 24th, I placed in a large glass vase, 

 with moist sand at the bottom of it, a quantity of wild plums, every 

 one of which I had previously ascertained to bear the crescent symbol 

 of the "little Turk." During the three following weeks I added from 

 day to day a number of plums, all of them bearing the same symbol, 

 that had fallen from a tame plum-tree in my garden. The whole 

 number of plums, as I subsequently ascertained, was 183, and the 

 tame fruit probably formed about a fourth part of the whole. The 

 first Curculio came out July 19th, and with the exception of July 21st 

 and August 1st, there were more or less came out every day till Aug- 

 ust 4th, inclusive ; after which day no more came out. The numbers 

 coming out on each successive day were as follows, the very large num- 

 ber on July 25th having been probably caused by my wetting the 

 sand on that morning rather copiously: 1, 18, 0, 3, 4, 2, 55, 8, 4, 

 3, 1, 2, 1, 0, 5, 4, 2. Total, 113. On examining the contents of 

 the vase, November 29th, I found five dead and dried-up Curculios 

 among the plums, and among the sand sixteen dead and immature 

 specimens, which had obviously failed to make their way up to the 

 light of day, besides the remains of a good many individuals which 



