374 Notes and Gleanings. 



the curculio came forth at the usual period, but delayed operations, as we suppose, 

 in consequence of the cold. 



So great is their power of reproduction, that, were the whole country one vast 

 orchard, they would, in one or two years at most, so increase as to occupy the 

 whole. Just in proportion as we increase the conditions needed for them, just 

 in that proportion do we find them to multiply their numbers. Curculios craw' 

 freely and quickly from one part of the tree to another. Before they take to 

 wing, they start off at a rapid pace, expanding their wings as they go. They 

 rarely fly, except in the middle of the day ; though, in very warm nights, occasion- 

 ally one will be attracted by and fly into a small light. They are very sluggish in 

 their movements in the cool of the morning, and, when jarred upon sheets at this 

 time, will remain a long while motionless ; in appearance, a most perfect repre- 

 sentation of a dry bud. Later in the day, when jarred from the trees, especially 

 if the weather be hot and the sun shines on them, they will quickly regain their 

 legs, and fly away. 



Of late, several eminent entomologists seem to have hastened to the conclu- 

 sion that all the larvae of the curculio, after leaving the fruit, penetrate to a short 

 depth into the earth, and there, in from twenty to thirty or more days, transform 

 and hibernate under cover of bark, grass, and shingles. — See Walsh's article on 

 the curculio, " Practical Entomologist," pp. 31, 75. 



That curculios never hibernate above ground, we are not prepared to deny; 

 having ourselves, in two or three instances, found them late in the season under 

 cover of bark. 



In this locality, however, that a large per cent of them do really remain in 

 the earth during winter, at the depth of fifteen to thirty-six inches, is to our 

 mind a well-established fact. During the month of January, 1 868, while my 

 workmen were excavating a ditch under peach-trees, I found two well-developed 

 larvce of the curculio at the depth of twenty-seven and thirty-eight inches ; and 

 during the month of April last, under some cherry-trees which had been neglected 

 the preceding year, I found two perfect curculios nearly ready to come forth, 

 four pupce, and quite a number of the grubs, — some of them not more tiian half 

 or two-thirds grown, and others about to enter the pupa state. 



These curculio grubs come near the surface as they are about to change to 

 pupse, and from the earth as they transform. This process of transformation is 

 o-oing on during several months, varying according to their several degrees of 

 development. This gradual emergence has probably given rise to the theory 

 before alluded to ; viz., that of the general hibernation of this insect in the 

 beetle form. 



Some of the advocates of this theory, on dissecting curculios late in the sea- 

 son, found their bodies to contain no eggs ; while those examined by them in the 

 spring were full of them. 



In these examinations, it seems to us a physiological fact has been lost sight 

 of; viz., that the ovary and the egg-germs it contains are not the result of an 

 after-"-rowth any more than in animals or other insects. Also, when the ovary is 

 once exhausted, these insects may properly be considered to have run their 

 course. 



