102 



great many Goiiger larvae. On the other hand, a plum inhabited by 

 the Curculio larva naturally falls from the tree, and thus my arrange- 

 ments, so far as regards this species, interfered in no wise with the 

 laws of nature. 



The lakva of the Plum Gouger, when found burrowing in the kernel on 

 July 20th, by which time the shell of the kernel was quite hard, was 0.12 

 inch long when partially straightened out, and 0.10 inch long when curled up 

 in the usual semicircular form. The color was milk-white, not whitish-glassy 

 as in the Curculio larva, and there was no rust-red stomach as in the Curculio 

 larva. The head was large, horny, and of a yellowish-white color, the jaws 

 (mandibles) being tipped with brovvn. The plum in which this larva oc- 

 curred had only been gathered four or five days previously. Another larva, 

 that had already bored into the kernel and was met with July 28th, in a plum 

 gathered the day before, differed only in the head not being tinged with 

 yellow, and in the jaws being almost entirely brown. 



Whether there be one or two broods of this insect every year, I 

 cannot say with certainty, but I strongly suspect that there is but one. 

 The perfect beetles appear on the plums early in June and deposit 

 their eggs therein, precisely as does the Curculio at that date, though, 

 as has been shown, on an entirely different system. According to 

 Mr. L. C. Francis, of Springfield, Central Illinois, (wdio is a very 

 successful plum-grower and follows the plan of jarring his trees reg- 

 ularly during the summer,) after June 7th, although he had previ- 

 ously found "about equal numbers of the Gouger and Curculio/' the 

 Gougers entirely disappeared, Curculios being still met with up to 

 the last of July. {Prairie Farmer, March 19, 1864.) This certainly 

 seems to indicate, that there is no such early brood of Gougers com- 

 ing out in July as there is of Curculios. From a large lot of plums 

 that I gathered myself off the tree June 24th, and that must have 

 contained many of the eggs of the Gouger — for I found several eggs 

 in the few that I cut open — I failed, as already said, to breed a single 

 Gouger; but I attribute this to the fact, that these plums would 

 naturally have hung on the tree till the kernel would have been more 

 fully developed. On July 20th and 28th, as I stated just now, I 

 found in plums but recently gathered larvae that could not have been 

 much more than half -grown ; so that the probability is, that the plum 

 infested by this larva must naturally hang on the tree till the kernel 

 is nearly perfected — that this larva requires a much longer time to 

 mature than that of the Curculio — and that eggs deposited early in 

 June do not develop into the beetle state till the end of August or 

 perhaps the early part of September. The two Gougers actually bred 

 by me this year came out, as will be recollected, August 24th and 

 26th. And there is nothing at all improbable or anomalous in a 



