78 COLEOPTEBA. 



far as he had observed,) that go into the earth as late as the 

 20th of July, do not ascend that season, but remain there in 

 the pupa stage until next spring." Dr. Tilton, in his account 

 of the curculio, stated that " it remains in the earth, in the 

 form of a grub, during the winter, ready to be metamorphosed 

 into a beetle as the spring advances." According to M. H. 

 Simpson, Esq., of Saxonville, the larvae, or grubs, " go through 

 their chrysalis state in three weeks after going into the ground, 

 and remain in a torpid state through the season, unless the 

 earth is disturbed." * Dr. E. Sanborn, of Andover, has come 

 to entirely different conclusions, from a series of experiments 

 made upon these insects. It is his opinion that they do not 

 remain in the ground, during the winter, either in the grub 

 or in the beetle state ; but that, under all conditions of place 

 and temperature, " in about six weeks " after they have en- 

 tered the earth " they return to the surface perfectly finished, 

 winged, and equipped for the work of destruction "; and that, 

 " as neither the curculio nor its grub burrows in the ground 

 during the winter, the common practice of guarding against 

 its ravages, by various operations in the soil, rests upon a 

 false theory, and is productive of no valuable results."! I*' 

 these conclusions be correct, these insects must pass the win- 

 ter above ground, in the beetle state, and the place of their 

 concealment, during this season, remains to be discovered. 



In July, 1818, Professor W. D. Peck obtained, from the 

 warty excrescences of the cherry-tree, the same insects that 

 he " had long known to occasion the fall of peaches, apricots, 

 and plums, before they had acquired half their growth"; 

 and, not aware that this species had already received a scien- 

 tific name, he called it Rhynchcenus Cerasi, the cherry- weevil. 

 His account of it, with a figure, may be seen in the fifth 

 volume of the " Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and 



* Hovey's Magazine, Vol. XVI. p. 257, June, 1850. 



t See Dr. Sanborn's interesting communications on the Plurn Curculio, in the 

 Boston Cultivator, for May 19, 1849, and July 13, 1850, and in the Puritan Re- 

 corder for May 2, and the Cambridge Chronicle for May 30, 1850. 



