Notes and Gleanings. 373 



If you wish to observe more minutely the shears, crush the body of a female 

 curculio, and then place her on her back, under a microscope, with the end of her 

 snout up : in her struggles she will fold back the end of it, and commence cut- 

 ting right and left, so as to fully expose her shears, and her manner of operating 

 them ; the two halves of which are each an exact representation of the cutting blade 

 of a pair of pruning-shears. These cutting blades are admirably adapted for 

 making the crescent cut of this insect, also for wounding the fruits from which 

 it sucks its food. With these shears she makes a minute cut just through the 

 skin of the fruit ; next, without changing her position, she thrusts her snout under 

 the skin of the fruit to the depth of about a sixteenth of an inch, moving it back 

 and forth until the cavity is large enough to receive the egg it is to retain. She 

 next changes her position, and drops an egg into the mouth of the cut ; then, re- 

 gaining her former position, she takes the egg in the end of her snout, and crowds 

 it to the end of the passage before described, the upper end of which has been 

 enlarged to receive it. She then enlarges and deepens the cut at the entrance, 

 giving it that peculiar crescent-shape which is the distinguishing mark of the 

 plum-curculio. In this manner she continues her operations on from one to 

 eight plums per day, until her store of eggs is exhausted ; the daily average vary- 

 ing greatly according to the temperature, continued warm weather exciting the 

 insects to the greatest activity. 



Their eggs, after being deposited in the fruit, are left to depend on the warmth 

 of the atmosphere to hatch. At this time they may be crushed with the thumb 

 or finger nail without injuring the fruit. These eggs are oval, and of a pearl- 

 white color, and large enough to be seen by the naked eye. When these are 

 about to hatch, the form of the insect can be seen through the shell by the aid of 

 a glass. The young insects, on emerging from the shell, burrow, and eat their 

 way into the fruit ; often nearly making the circuit of the stone before penetrat- 

 ing to it. 



These grubs, or larvas, are sometimes confounded with those of the long- 

 snouted nut-beetles, that occasionally puncture and place their eggs either within 

 the stone or on its surface. 



Those deposited early in the season are sometimes wholly lost by a few days 

 of succeeding cold weather. Once hatched, they are also liable to several casual- 

 ties : for example, the Columbia, and several other varieties of plums, under certain 

 conditions of growth, fill the passage made by the grub with water, and drown 

 them. Others are lost by the too-premature falling of the fruit and by the cook- 

 ing of the fallen fruit and the grubs it contains ; by exposure to the sun ; also 

 from other causes, as we shall show farther on. 



So hardy are these curculio larvJE, that after being sufficiently developed in 

 the fruit, and having safely effected their entrance into ground which is adapted 

 to their wants, nearly the whole brood will come forth the following year, per- 

 fect beetles, to renew their attacks on the products of our orchards. A small 

 per cent of these curculio larvas become pupas late in the fall or winter, and come 

 forth with the first warm days in the spring, and deposit their eggs as early as 

 the 1st to the loth of May. Twice, however, within the last twenty-two years, 

 their first punctures were made May 28 and June 2. In both of these years, 



