76 COLEOPTERA. 



wardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and 

 have frequently caught them flying in the middle of the day. 

 They begin to sting the plums as soon as the fruit is set, 

 and continue their operations to the middle of July, or, as 

 some say, till the first of August. In doing this, the beetle 

 first makes a small crescent-shaped incision, with its snout, 

 in the skin of the plum, and then, turning round, inserts 

 an egg in the wound. From one plum it goes to another, 

 until its store of eggs is exhausted ; so that, where these 

 beetles abound, not a plum will escape being stung. Very 

 rarely is there more than one incision made in the same 

 fruit ; and the weevil lays only a single egg therein. The 

 insect hatched from this egg is a little whitish grub, desti- 

 tute of feet, and very much like a maggot in appearance, 

 except that it has a distinct, rounded, light-brown head. It 

 immediately burrows obliquely into the fruit, and finally pene- 

 trates to the stone. The irritation, arising from the wounds 

 and from the gnawings of the grubs, causes the young fruit 

 to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop before it 

 is ripe. Meanwhile, the grub comes to its growth, and, im- 

 mediately after the falling of the fruit, quits the latter and 

 burrows in the ground. This may occur at various times 

 between the middle of June and of August ; and, in about 

 three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- 

 tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. 



The earliest account of the habits of the plum weevil, that 

 I have seen, was written by Dr. James Tilton, of Wilming- 

 ton, Delaware. It will be found, under the article Fruit, in 

 Dr. James Mease's edition of Willich's " Domestic Encyclo- 

 paedia," published at Philadelphia in 1803. The same ac- 

 count has been reprinted in the " Georgic Papers for 1809 " 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other 

 works. According to Dr. Tilton, this insect attacks not only 

 nectarines, plums, apricots, and cherries, but also peaches, 

 apples, pears, and quinces, the truth of which has been abun- 

 dantly confirmed by later writers. I have myself ascertained 



