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nuts and some of these resemble very closely that formidable 

 enemy of the fruit grower, the plum curculio. In their life his- 

 tories and general characteristics the likeness of the different 

 species is still futher borne out. 



As compared with the nut weevils, the curculios are smaller 

 and the snout much shorter. The more important species pass 

 the winter in the adult or beetle form and deposit their eggs in 

 young nuts early in the summer. 



The two species that attack walnuts and hickorynuts often 

 cause a heavy drop of the immature nuts. Very frequently 

 trees of black walnut and of some varieties of hickory lose half 

 their crop as a result of injuries inflicted by these insects. The 

 infested nuts drop while they are quite small and for that reason 

 the injuries are more apt to escape notice than when nuts are 

 attacked that are more nearly mature. 



THE WALNUT CURCULIO, Conotrachelus juglandis Lee. 



During the month of July the ground beneath bearing black 

 and white walnut trees will frequently be found well covered 

 with little nuts that have recently fallen from the branches 

 above. An examination of these nuts will show a crescent-shap- 

 ed scar on the side of each and on cutting the nut open a small, 

 whitish larva with a brown head will be found usually on the 

 discolored tissue. A snout beetle known as the walnut curculio 

 is responsible for this condition of the nuts. 



The beetle is about one-fourth of an inch long and the snout, 

 which hangs down or is folded back beneath the thorax, is less 

 than half as long as the body. The back has a rough appearance 

 which is due to several humps and ridges. The body is thinly 

 covered with short, dingy-yellow hairs which form indistinct 

 bands on each side of the prothorax and across the wing covers 

 just behind the middle. 



The first eggs of the season are deposited usually in young 

 black walnuts about June 10th to 15th and oviposition contin- 

 ues for more than a month. In preparing a place for her egg, 

 the beetle hollows out a cavity or pocket in the walnut about me- 



