3/2 Notes ajid Gleanings. 



The Plum-Curculio. — There are at least five beetles of the curculio family 

 that are destructive to our fruits. In this paper, however, we shall chiefly con- 

 fine our remarks, to the one known as the true plum-curculio. For a full and 

 scientific description of this insect, see Walsh in "The Practical Entomologist," 

 vol. ii. p. 75. 



This plum-curculio, so called, has of late years become so generally dissemi- 

 nated, and destructive to fruits, that any facts concerning its habits cannot fail to 

 arrest attention. In this latitude, curculios begin to make their appearance early 

 in the season, — always some days before the trees are in bloom ; and are usually 

 stocked with well-grown eggs by the time the young plums are as large as a pea. 

 Everywhere in this region where orchards are numerous, and regularly in bearing, 

 the curculio has so increased in numbers, that they no longer confine their opera- 

 tions to the plum, but deposit their eggs in all our orchard-fruits. These insects 

 are well acquainted with the hickory-nut. This year, on a large shellbark-tree 

 contiguous to my orchard on which there were one or two bushels of nuts, not 

 one could be found which had not been destroyed by them. 



I have also known them to deposit their eggs in strawberries, gooseberries, and 

 occasionally in grapes. Perhaps it is a little curious that these last-named fruits, 

 as well as apples and pears, should be attacked by them, since in none of these 

 are the larvae perfected. The same remark will also apply to late peaches stung 

 early in the season ; whereas in all the early varieties, as well as early nectarines, 

 the apricot, and cherry, they breed quite as freely as in the plum. 



Notwithstanding the larvas are not perfected in the pear and apple, the eggs 

 hatch; and the young grubs eat their way a considerable distance into these fruits, 

 where they perish. The fruits at these wounded parts cease to grow ; and some 

 varieties of apples — the Rawle's Janet, for example, in some localities — nearly 

 all rot from the punctures thus made. Those apples that escape rotting are so 

 deformed and knotty as to be of little value, except " to sell " and for cider. 



The mischief done by these insects is by no means confined to the loss of the 

 stung fruits : these, under certain conditions, rot to such an extent, especially 

 some of the early peaches, as to defoliate and kill all the interior branches, and so 

 impair the vitality of the trees as to render them worthless, and in some instances 

 to kill them. Within a few years, we have discovered that much of the black knot 

 on the branches of our plum-trees was clearly referable to the stung plums rest- 

 ino- and rotting on the branches ; thus creating those conditions favorable to 

 a species of a fungoid growth, resulting in that peculiar enlargement of the 

 limbs known as the black knot. 



To witness the operation of the curculio in stinging the fruit, it is necessary 

 to approach her with caution. Take a near position, and remain motionless a few 

 minutes, when she will cease to notice you. Being provided with a bit of mirror, 

 resting it in a favorable position, and with the further aid of a glass magnifying 

 eight or ten diameters, you will be able to view the "little Turk " at her work. 

 The insect having taken a strong hold on the fruit, she depresses her snout, 

 bringing it under her body, and in contact with the fruit. The end of the snout 

 very mucli resembles the lower part of an elephant's trunk. A little way down 

 in this, as she folds back the end of it, you will observe a pair of jaws, or shears. 



