THE CURCULIO. 99 



becoming worse every year, many people, when told that they must promptly destroy 

 the falling fruit, will say, " That is too much trouble. I cannot have the cattle or hogs 

 in my orchards, I want to plough them or mow them." Or, " If I should do this, my 

 neighbors will not, and what's the use ?" Well, go on then " in your old shiftless 

 way," and those who do take the proper care will have the greater profits. 



I expected to have had a colony of Curculios for investigation this winter. I 

 had prepared a frame covered with wire gauze in the shape of an old-fashioned wire 

 trap, about two feet in diameter. This was to be placed on the ground under an 

 Apple tree, and the Curculios from a bushel of apples to be kept under it ; but the 

 bushel of apples produced but eight instead of a thousand, as I expected. The eight 

 I found dead when I returned from one of my trips, and it was too late then to repeat 

 the experiment this year. 



Whether the Curculio, after undergoing its transformation in the ground as it 

 always does, and then coming to the surface, ever goes back again as winter 

 approaches, I do not know. Once, in repairing the roof of a house late in the fall, I 

 observed some of these insects in a torpid condition under the shingles. I have met 

 them in the chinks of stone walls, and once I found one under a scale of bark of an 

 apple tree near the ground early in the spring. 



A favorite practice of the writer for years, has been searching under the rough 

 bark of different kinds of trees, to see what species of insects find shelter there, and 

 what condition they are in during different degrees of temperature. Lady-bugs, 

 asparagus beetles, spiders, flies, great varieties of beetles, and ants are there, but I have 

 not found the Curculio except in the one instance. -Peter B. Mead, Mr. C. Marie, 

 and I, have kept them in green-houses in the winter, and found they will feed on green 

 leaves and fruits when warm, and the sexes will sometimes be together ; but when 

 colder, all become quiet and seem torpid, though a momentary warming, as under the 

 thumb in the palm of the hand, awakes them into activity at once. 



Many believe that the Curculio lives through the winter in the immature condi- 

 tion of the grub, and undergoes its transformation in the spring. This is not so. In 

 all my numerous experiments made year after year, even with the latest stung apples, 

 the grubs become beetles the same season, and as beetles they live somewhere 

 through the winter. When the warm weather of the next spring is fairly established, 

 and before the young fruits are formed, a few Curculios can occasionally be found by 

 jarring almost any kind of tree over canvas, provided that tree is in the neighbor- 

 hood of where fruit grew the year before. 



1 2. In a conversation to-day with Mr. Marie, about the Curculio, he 



13 



