(Queries and A7is'wers io Qiieries. 



52 



237 



I hope I have now, as far as written communications will effect it, explained 

 the state of my little affairs, so that some talented designer may be enabled 

 to set me to work upon parterres, American grounds, bowers, fountains, 

 aviaries, walks, shrubberies, &c., in which, I trust, your Magazines will be 

 no small assistants to, Sir, your obedient servant — Philagros. Jan. 31. 

 1829. 



An Insect in Fruit Trees. — I grow fruit trees rather extensively, but suf- 

 fer so much every spring, particularly of late years, from the depredations 

 of one particular insect, that it is become a matter of very serious consider- 

 ation with me what I am to do to put a stop to the devastation it commits. 

 These insects begin their handywork about the latter end of March, by 

 attacking all my newly put on grafts of apples, plums, and cherries in parti- 

 cular. They let nothing escape. They first begin at the top of the scion, 

 and strip it of all the bark, quite round; then as the eyes begin to swell 

 they eat them almost every one out, and quite hollow, as if done with a small 

 scoop. As soon as the buds inserted the previous year begin to grow, their 

 shoots are served in the same way. They are also very severe on my fruit 

 trees even of two or three years old, attacking them about the same time 

 as'they do the grafts (especially those that have been shortened in to pro- 

 duce young wood), by eating out a number of eyes, and divesting almost 

 every young shoot of its bark, for perhaps an inch below the point of am- 

 putation. 



Notwithstanding all this, most of ray grafts grow at a second effort, after 

 the insect appears to have given over its work of destruction, but they are 

 so much retarded and weakened that they are by no means equal to those 

 that escape. 



I am no entomologist, but believe the animal to belong to the genus 

 Curculio, and I have sent for your inspection a quantity of them in a 

 small tin box, together with some shoots of the apple tree that they have 

 operated upon. In the daytime they retire a short way under the surface 

 of the earth, and, in dry weather (being of the same colour as the mould), 

 it is scarcely possible to see them ; but by examiningthe grafts, &c. at night, 

 with a lighted candle, they are seen at full work in thousands. I do not 

 observe it figured or described amongst other insects in your Encyclopcedia 

 of Gardening. Perhaps in the new Magazine of Natural History which you 

 have now commenced, you may, in course of your progress, give us some 

 account of it. I am,&c. — John Hervey. Comber Nursery, May, 1828. 



We are extremely sorry for having so long neglected this communication; 

 the circumstance arose from our having sent it, along with the box of in- 

 sects, to Mr. Haworth, and forgotten that we did so. Mr. Haworth says 

 it is a species of Dermestes, but does not know its specific name. We 

 should think watering the ground with hot water the most likely mode of 

 destroying them ; but perhaps Mr. Major (p. 192.) will tell us what to do. 

 — Cond. 



