240 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



band, with more or less white in its middle. The snout 

 of the Plum Curculio is scarcely as long as the head and 

 thorax together, and can be folded back between the legs, 

 where there is a groove to receive it. The Plum Curculio 

 is broadest across the shoulders and narrows behind ; and, 

 moreover, the black sealing-wax-like, knife-edged elevations 

 on the back, with the pale band behind them, characterize 

 it at once from all our other fruit-boring snout-beetles. It 

 is in this hard, shelly, beetle state, that the female passes 

 the winter, sheltering under the shingles of houses, under 

 the old bark of both forest and fruit trees, under logs, and 

 in rubbish of all kinds. As spring approaches, the insect 

 awakens from its lethargy ; and, if it has slept in the forest, 

 it instinctively searches for the nearest orchard. In Cen- 

 tral Illinois and in Central Missouri the beetles may be 

 found in the trees during the last half of April ; but in the 

 extreme southern part of Illinois they appear about two 

 weeks, earlier; while in the extreme northern part of the 

 same State they are fully two weeks later. Thus, in the 

 single State of Illinois, there is a difference of about one 

 month in the time of the curculio's first appearance on 

 fruit-trees ; and the time will vary with the forwardness or 

 lateness of the season. 



How they Oviposit. The curculio first commences to 

 puncture fruit when the specimens are of the size of small 

 marbles, or of hazel-nuts, though she may be found on your 

 trees as soon as they are in blossom. Alighting on a small 

 peach, she takes a strong hold of it, and with the minute 

 jaws at the end of her snout makes a small cut just 

 through the skin of the fruit. She then runs the snout 

 slantingly under the skin, to the depth of one-sixteenth of 

 an inch, and moves it back and forth until the cavity is 

 large enough to receive the egg it is to retain. Then she 

 turns around and drops an egg into the mouth of the cavi- 



