1858.] SENATE— No. 4. 199 



this insect they must be annually followed up with the same perse- 

 verance and industry in order to be permanent. 



Another insect of the beetle tribe has of late years been most 

 troublesome to the nurseryman or market gardener, who attempts to 

 raise certain kinds of stone-fruit, as plums, cherries, &c., and has 

 even extended its depredations to apples. I refer to the plum 

 weevil or curculio, Rhynchamus Nemiphar. As this insect is described 

 at length in the previously mentioned treatise, and has been fre- 

 quently noticed and commented upon in other agricultural publica- 

 tions, it is only necessary to say, that it is a small beetle about one- 

 fifth of an inch long, having a snout curved downwards, with which 

 it makes its crescent-shaped punctures in the fruit in order to 

 deposit its eggs. It is of a dark brown color, rough and hard in 

 texture, and has the power of contracting itself so completely into 

 the shape of a dead bud, when disturbed, as to deceive often the 

 most experienced eye. The grub when hatched, so injures the young 

 and tender fruit by its gnawing, that it drops upon the ground 

 before it is half ripe, and decays, while the grub enters the ground 

 tp complete its transformations. The only method of arresting 

 their ravages with any degree of success, seems to consist in jarring 

 the trees, when they first begin to appear, by heavy blows, while the 

 weevils, bitten plums, and other insects, if there be any, fall into a 

 sheet held underneath and may be collected and burned ; this opera- 

 tion should be repeated morning and evening during the weeks of 

 their stay. 



Another small beetle, the Crioceris trilineata, often greatly injures 

 the potato by consuming the leaves of the plants, causing them, if in 

 great numbers, to turn black and wither. While in the beetle state 

 it is of a light yellow color about one-quarter of an inch long, with, 

 two black spots on the thorax, and three black stripes on the back, 

 and has the power of making a creaking noise when held in the 

 fingers. These lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves about 

 the middle of June, and in about a fortnight there is hatched from 

 these a fat yellow grub, with a blackish head and two black spots on 

 the top of the first ring ; they have six legs and crawl sluggishly over 

 the plant, covering that as well as themselves with their filthy excre- 

 ment. When they have finished eating, which is generally in about 

 a fortnight, they crawl down the stem into the ground, whence in 

 another fortnight they reappear in a second brood of beetles in 

 August ; these again lay their eggs, the grubs from which enter the 

 ground in the fall and remain during the winter before their final 

 change into beetles. Lime, in fine powder, has been thought 

 beneficial in checking these devourers if dusted on the leaves after a 

 rain, or early in the morning before the dew is ofi"; and brushing' them 



