468 Insects most mjtirious to Cultivators : — 



size; and e, magnified). The pupa state is but of short duration, ns 

 it requires but four or five weeks from the period of laying the egg, 

 for the insect to arrive at perfection. As soon as the latter 

 period is arrived (in the early part of June), the perfectly formed 

 vi^eevil makes its escape from its cell, by gnawing a hole in the 

 side of the withered blossom. Throughout the summer, they 

 may be found occasionally in woods and gardens ; and they are 

 not unfrequent in the blossoms of the white thorn and other 

 plants (according to Stephens), upon which, I presume, they 

 must subsist, as they are destined to live through the autumn 

 and following winter, hybernating under and in the crevices of 

 the bark of apple trees, Mr. Curtis gives the following dates of 

 the appearance of the insect in its different states : — " The larva? 

 were found, the 8th of May, in pear and aj)ple blossoms, eating- 

 out the whole inside, and leaving only the petals and calyx : they 

 were observed to be in pupee on the 21st; and on the 25th they 

 hatched." {British E?itomol., fol. 562.) 



The insect is systematically known under the following 

 names : — 



Order, Coleoptera. 



Section, Rhyncophora (Snout-bearers or Weevils). 



Genus, Anthonomus Germar. (Derived from the Greek anthos, a flower, and 



nome, food ; or Flower-feeder, &c.) Syn., RhynchiE^nus Fat)., S^c. Curciilio 



(part) Linnceus. 

 Species, Anth. pomorum Germar (Curculio pomorum Liyin,). Anthonomus 



of the apples. 



The very extensive tribe of weevils having required much 

 subdivision, those species which agree in structure with this 

 species have been separated from the rest, and have the ros- 

 trum slender, and longer than the thorax ; the antennae strongly 

 elbowed, and 12-jointed, inserted beyond the middle of the snout 

 (h); the thighs robust, with a strong tooth near the tips on the 

 under side ; and the elytra large and elongate-ovate. The fol- 

 lowing is a description of this species: — Pitchy brown, dotted, 

 and thickly clothed with ochi'eous and ash-coloured scales ; the 

 antennae and legfs reddish ; the thijjhs having the middle darker 

 coloured ; the elytra are dotted in rows, and of a dusky red 

 colour, slightly clouded with darker brown, having near the 

 extremity a pale very oblique bar, densely clothed with white 

 scales, and meeting together at the suture, forming a white V on 

 the back, edged with a broad bar of black, both in front and 

 behind, the latter being less strongly marked than the front 

 black bar ; the rostrum is pitchy. The weevil is ordinarily about 

 one sixth of an inch in length. This insect is extremely shy, 

 falling to the ground, and counterfeiting death, on the slightest 

 approach of danger; so that any attempt to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of the fruit l)y capturing the beetle in its perfect state must 



