THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 211 



THE PLUM GOUQER. 



Coccotorns priiiiicida. (Walsh.) 



The plum gouger and plum curculio placed side by side bear 

 but little resemblance to each other, except that both have a snout 

 or rostrum and are of about equal size, yet the gouger has been 

 ofteh mistaken for the "little turk" in the region where the two 

 species overlap. The adult gouger is very close to one-fourth of 

 an inch in length, exclusive of the rostrum, and is a very prettily 

 marked beetle. The thorax, the head including the rostrum, the 

 underside of the body and the legs, are of an ochre-yellow color, 

 due to the presence of hairs of this color. The wing covers are 

 darker, being of a leaden-gray color, though, when viewed under a 

 lens, the hairs are seen to be distinctly lighter than on other parts 

 of the body. The wing covers are irregularly spotted with yellow- 

 ish and brownish patches of scaly hairs. A rather indistinct yel- 

 lowish line occurs on the middle of the back extending from the 

 thorax to the end of the wings. The small, roundish head, deeply 

 sunken into the thorax, narrows down into the gently curved ros- 

 trum, which is slightly longer than the head and thorax together. 

 The elbowed antennae are attached just beyond a point one-third 

 the distance from the tip of the snout, which extends forward and 

 downward. The plum curculio is noticably smaller than the gouger 

 though by actual measurements it lacks only one- sixty-fourth of 

 an inch of being as long. Even this small numerical difference is 

 very easily detected in such minute creatures as these. The curculio 

 differs also in color, being dark brown variegated with spots of 

 white, ochre-yellow and black giving a general color impression of 

 dark brown or smoky black. Dr. Harris, the early entomologist 

 from Massachusetts well said of the plum curculio, "looking like a 

 dried bud when it is shaken from the trees, which resemblance is 

 increased by its habit of drawing up its legs and bending its snout 

 close to the lower side of its body and remaining for a time without 

 motion, and seemingly lifeless." The thorax is uneven gnd the 

 wing covers have longitudinal ridges and two black-colored humps. 



