84 APPLE WEEVIL. 



perfectly still. Up to this time the blossom has continued 

 healthy, no trace of the enemy being to be discovered 

 without ; but when the neighbouring blossoms are expand- 

 ing their petals to the genial breath of spring, those of the 

 mutilated bud remain closed, and retain the arched, bal- 

 loon-like appearance of a bud about to burst.* For a few 

 days they preserve their lovely pink colour ; and then, by 

 degrees, fade to dingy brown. In this state they remain 

 until the other apples are well knit; and then the da- 

 maged blossoms, by their decided contrast, appear very 

 conspicuous. On opening these brown, or rather rust-co- 

 loured blossoms between the 10th and the 15th of June, 

 the chrysalis will be found to have changed to a* perfect 

 beetle, similar to its parent above described, which, had it 

 been left to itself, would in a few days have eaten its way 

 through the weather-beaten case of dried petals, and left 

 its prison-house, flying about to take its pleasure, until the 

 chilly winds of autumn should drive it to its winter habita- 

 tion under the bark : and in the next spring, the whole 

 round of operations through which we have watched its 

 parent and itself would be performed with the same un- 

 varying, unerring instinct. The cloudy, misty, east wind, 

 in which our farmers and gardeners see the blight, is the 

 very weather of all least favourable to the propagation and 

 increase of these weevils. The fine, clear, sunny days of 

 March and April are the most favourable to them. The 



* Within this balloon, as the writer terms it, I have often found a small 

 species of Cimex in company with the beetle or its chrysalis : I have never 

 been able to detect any aperture through which the Cimex could have entered, 

 and although I have been altogether unable to discover any connexion between 

 the Curculio and the Cimex, or even to form a conjecture as to the cause of 

 their companionship, I cannot for a moment doubt that the welfare of one is in 

 some measure dependant on the other. E. N. 



