346 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



July 



In another column of the same paper, the 

 following commendatory sentence is quoted in 

 an editorial notice of Dr. Warder's new work 

 on the apple: "To say that we are pleased 

 with this book is but a tame expression ; we 

 are delighted, for it gives us new facts — it 

 places Western pomology on a firm basis." 



Now, does Dr. Warder claim to be as 

 familiar with the natural history of the cur- 

 culio, as with that of the cow ? On the con- 

 trary, he speaks of it as "the noted and noto- 

 rious, and yet little known. Plum Weevil." 

 This, surely, is a rather "tame" confession for 

 the author of a practical book on pomology, 

 intended, specially with all its "new facts," for 

 a section in which the ravages of this insect 

 are as serious as they appear to be, from the 

 statements of some of the most careful ob- 

 servers in the ' 'favored northwest." Dr. Walsh, 

 of Rock Island, Illinois, says: "Out of the 

 choicest apples selected for exhibition at our 

 State Fairs, a large proportion will be found, 

 on close inspection, to be more or less blem- 

 ished from this cause." Dr. Hall, of Alton, 

 111., "does not recollect to have seen a single 

 apple the past season, grown at that point, that 

 did not contain from one to twenty or more 

 punctures made by this insect." If these are 

 facts, is Western pomology placed on a firm 

 basis by a work which devotes less than a page 

 to this "noted and notorious, and yet little 

 known" pest? 



The most complete history of the curculio 

 that we have ever seen, is that.by Dr. Walsh, 

 occupying thirteen columns in the April num- 

 ber of the Practical Entomologist. He de- 

 scribes, particularly, three distinct snout-beetles 

 of the curculio family — the "True Curculio;" 

 the "Plum Gouger," and the "Four-humped 

 Curculio." 



The True Curculio, (Conotrachelus Nen- 

 upliar, Herbst,) he says may be distinguished 

 from all other North American snout-beetles, 

 by having on the middle of each of his wings 

 an elongate, knife-edged hump, which is black 

 and shining, so as to resemble a piece of black 

 sealing wax. Behind these two humps there 

 is usually placed a broad clay-yellow band, 

 marked in the middle with white ; but some- 

 times this entire band is white. 



The Plum Gouger, {Anthonomus pruni- 

 c\da, Walsh,) though often confounded with 

 tUc curculio, and sometimes supposed to be the 

 male of that insect, bore^. a round bole like 



the puncture of a pin, wherein to deposit its 

 egg, instead of the crescent of the curculio, 

 making five or six such holes in the plum, 

 from which the gum exudes. The larva? bore 

 directly into the kernel, on which they exclu- 

 sively feed. 



The Four-Humped Cxtrculio, (Anthono- 

 mus A-gibbus, Say,) is of a dull brown color, 

 shading into red-rust behind, with four pro- 

 jecting humps on its wing-cases, none of which 

 are shinging black? as in the case of the com- 

 mon "curculio." 



Dr. Walsh gives the following characteris- 

 tics of these three curculios, by which one 

 may be distinguished from the other. 



The common "Curculio" has a snout which 

 hangs down like the trunk of an elephant, and 

 which he can, whenever he chooses, fold back- 

 wards between his legs, although he has no power 

 to project it«straight forwards. On the other hand, 

 the Plum-gouger and the Four-humped Curculio 

 usually carry their snouts projected horizontally 

 or nearly so, in front of them ; but upon occasion 

 can depress them vertically, although they have 

 no power to fold them backwards between their 

 legs. Of these two, thus agreeing as to the struc- 

 ture of their snouts, the Plum-gouger is at once 

 distinguishable by having a smooth l)ack, without 

 any humps on it, whereas the Four-humped Cur- 

 culio, as its name indicates, has two very conspic- 

 uous humps on eaeh of his wing cases. As re- 

 gards their habits, the common Curculio infests 

 stone fruit more especially, but not unfrequently 

 has been known to attack pip-fruit; while, so far 

 as is at present known, the Plum-gouger is exclu- 

 sively confined to stoue fruit, and the Four-humped 

 Curculio to pip-ft-uit. 



We are tempted to extend these extracts, 

 but must confine ourselves to what the writer 

 says of the history of the curculio after reach- 

 ing its perfect state — of how and where, in 

 fact, it passes some ten months in each year, 

 and what it does for a living from July to May. 



In relation to the true curculio, Mr. Walsh 



says : 



Some of these perfect beetles come out as early 

 as the middle of July — some in August — some as 

 late as the latter end of September. Hence, as it 

 seemed incredible that a beetle coming out in July 

 should live all through the winter, and until the 

 next season's crop of plums were set, and as no 

 one had as yet ascertained that any "Curculio" 

 hybeniated in the beetle state. Dr. Fitch, and, in 

 the earlier edition of his work. Dr. Harris, have 

 suggested the lij'pothcsis that the species is double- 

 brooded ; the second brood l)cing supposed from 

 the analogy of a very distinct snout-bectle which 

 attacks the plum in Europe (Rlii/n'ckitcs ctiprcus,) 

 to lay its eggs in the twigs of the infested trees, 

 the iarvie jiroeceding from which eggs pass the 

 winter in the twig, and afterwards produce the 

 beetles that sting the fruit in the following sum- 

 mer. (xV. Y. Rep. 11 § 52, and Inj. Ins. edit. 1841, 

 p. 68.) But, in the first place, there is no proof of 

 any such fact ; and, in the second place, I have 

 already shown that Dr. Trimble actually found 

 specimens of the "Curculio" hybcrnating under 

 the shingles of a roof, in the chinks of stono walU, 



