OF THE FARM AND GARDEN. 



165 



THE APPLE CURCULIO. 

 (Anthonomus quadrigibbus, Say.) 



Some have stated that the common Plum Curculio 

 will also attack young Apples; however this may be, 

 there is, in several of the Western States, and in Canada, 

 a Curculio which has long infested the native Crab 

 Apples, and has, in many cases, learned to prefer the 

 cultivated to the wild fruit. A comparison of the en- 

 graving of this insect (fig. 

 106), with that of the 

 Plum Curculio, given on a 

 subsequent page, will at 

 once show striking differ- 

 ence. In the first place, 

 there is the greater length 

 of snout, which is carried 

 extended in front; then 

 the marked widening of 

 the body behind, serves 

 also to distinguish it. 

 It has four conspicuous lumps on the wing-cases at 

 the rear, from which it takes its specific name. It varies 

 from one-twentieth, to one- twelfth of an inch in length. 

 It is of a rusty-brown color, and the thorax, and often 

 the forward third of the wing-covers ash-gray. 



The insect deposits its egg in an opening made in the 

 skin of the fruit; the larva when hatched goes to the 

 core, and there feeds, producing much excrement, for 

 nearly a month, and then assumes the pupa state within 

 the fruit, which does not fall; in two or three weeks it 

 appears as a perfect beetle. In Missouri and Southern 

 Illinois, this insect often does much damage to the Apple 

 crop, and probably it is abundant in other States, where 

 its work has been attributed to other insects. In several 



Fig. 106. A.PPLE CURCULIO (Antho- 



nomus quadrigibbus, Say.) 



a, Real size ; ft, Side view ; c, Back view, 



both enlarged. 



