THE CURCULIO. 89 



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will be a day so warm that many of these insects will be noticed peeping out, but 

 there will be no signs of intercourse between the sexes. 



That degree of temperature that draws forth the bud and the blossom the next 

 spring, brings these Curculios to that stage of life that their eggs will be ready for 

 the young fruit when the young fruit will be ready for the eggs. The idea of some 

 writers, that there are two generations of this insect that prey upon the fruits the same 

 year one generation early in the season, another later has been proved to be erro- 

 neous. Two generations there are undoubtedly living at the same time, but I have 

 only been able to find the egg in the female of the older generation. 



July 16. The last time I was at the orchard of my friend, Mr. P., jarring some 

 of his Plum trees for Curculios, I tried also the experiment how many of the little 

 apples I could pick in a given time. I had put about a bushel of these blighted 

 apples in my canvas, and tied them up so that I could see on my next visit how many 

 of the grubs of the Curculio and larvse of the Apple Moth would have come to their 

 growth, and escaped from the fruit. But the sheet had been seen lying there, and 

 was supposed to be the cover of the carriage. It was ordered to be taken up, and the 

 apples, worms, and all, being emptied upon the ground, my experiment was spoilt. 

 These apples had been emptied in a heap, and we gathered them up carefully ; the 

 little spots of brown powder that had fallen out where the worms had made the holes 

 to escape from the apples were plainly to be seen. Many of the openings could also 

 be detected where the grubs had gone into the ground. Some I found about an inch 

 under the surface. But the ground here, from the excessive drought, was too hard to 

 dig much with a pocket knife (and I had nothing else), and hundreds of my friend's 

 enemies will probably come up from this spot to torment him next year, unless this 

 dry weather should last a few weeks longer. 



July 17. I have been jarring four of Mr. Pierson's Plum trees to-day, and caught 

 nine Curculios. The jarring brought down a great number of plums. I counted 160 

 that fell from one side of one tree, and all the effect of the Curculio. 



July 18. The nine Curculios caught yesterday have been kept in a bottle with 

 two Plums (the Quetsche). They have left many marks, and deposited a few eggs, 

 but this kind of plum seems too hard to suit them. The Green Gage or Bolmar 

 would have shown more marks in the same time. 



July 20. On a tour of observation to Western New York. In a ramble in the 



