54 THE ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



attacks the pear in June and July. C. cupreus, the 

 copper-coloured weevil, attacks the leaves and young 

 shoots of plums and apricots in June and July. C. 

 nucum, the nut weevil, demolishes our nuts : the best 

 thing is to shake the bushes and collect and destroy the 

 worm-eaten nuts that fall. C. oblongus is oblong, of a 

 reddish-brown, and feeds on the young leaves of peaches, 

 apricots, plums, pears, and apples in May. C. ienelricosus 

 is a great enemy to the apricot. The crevices in old 

 walls often harbour them, and had better be filled up 

 with mortar or cement, and if the Iarva3 are about the 

 foot of the wall, a top-dressing of soot will do good. 

 Infusion of tobacco or quassia does good. 



Curculio pomorum, or Anthonymus pomorum, the apple 

 weevil, is, perhaps, the worst of all this destructive 

 family. The mature insect is a little beetle about a 

 quarter of an inch long, which hides itself in the bark 

 of apple trees in winter. In the spring the female lays 

 her eggs, one in each flower-bud ; these hatch into little 

 white grubs, which destroy the flowers, and soon change 

 into the beetles or weevils which feed on the leaves in 

 summer, and are not often seen. 



The weevils should be sought for in their beetle form 

 in winter, when they may be found hidden in the bark 

 of trees or under stones. 



The winter moth, Clieimatobia brumata, is most de- 

 structive to the apple blossom, as well as to the leaves of 

 many trees, and from living well through the winter, it 

 is abundant and difficult to deal with. 



The lackey moth, Clisiocampa neustria, lays a great 

 number of eggs in wide compact bands round the small 

 branches of pear and other trees : the caterpillars, when 

 they hatch, collect in large nests at the forks of small 

 branches, where they may be sought for and destroyed, 

 taking care that none drop by a thread and so escape. 

 The Tortrix is a kind of moth with many varieties, very 

 injurious to fruit. 



As valuable and industrious destroyers of mischievous 

 insects, take care that no harm happens to either lady- 

 birds, toads, or frogs. 



