THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



221 



tondcrl to operate. Tlio romniiiiiin- arms ai-e sup- 

 l)orted on the handli'>, and I'asloiied to them and 

 III the two cross and iniiallcl [licres in the rear 

 of the wheel. TIicm- arc sn )ilaccd as to divide 

 tlic space at tlioir outer ends equally between 

 (hem and tlic tirst mentioned stretchers and 

 fastened to the ends of the handles. Next we 

 have ready a strip of half-inch board two and 

 a halt' wide. One end of this is secured to tlie 

 forward end of one of the front arms, and in 

 like manner to all the others on one side of the 

 machine, and fastened to the handles. Both 

 sides are made alike. The office of these strips 

 is to hold the outside ends of the arms in posi- 

 tion ; they also hold the front arms from closing. 

 These outside strips also receive the outside 

 edge of the canvas, which is fastened to them 

 as well as the several arm supports. 



" It will be seen that the wheel is nearly in 

 the lentre of the machine. To cover the open- 

 iiiy: at this point, a tramc is raised overit, which 

 is also covered with canvas. The arms, or 

 stretchers, are so curved that the motion of the 

 machine, in moving from one tree to another, 

 should bring everything falling on the canvas 

 U> deiiri'ssed points, one on each side of the 

 whcMl, when- iiiicnings are made into funnels 

 emptxiuii into imckets or bags, for the reception 

 of insects and fallen fruit. The whole machine 

 should not exceed ten or eleven feet in breadth, 

 by twelve or thirteen in length. These are for 

 large orchard trees ; smaller ones could be pro- 

 tected with a raucli smaller machine. If the 

 frame work has been properly balanced, the 

 machine will require but little lifting, and will 

 be nearly propelled by its own weight. 



" The" Cureulio-catcher, or machine, is run 

 against the tree three or four times, with suffi- 

 cient force to impart a jarring motion to all its 

 pai-ts. The operator then backs far enough to 

 bring the maciiine to the centre of the space be- 

 tween the rows, turns round and in like man- 

 ner butts the tree in the opposite row. In this 

 way a man may operate on three hundred trees 

 per hour."' 



To run this machine successfully, three 

 things are necessary: 1st, that the land be de- 

 cently clean, and not ovei-grown with rank 

 weeds ; 2d, that the orchard be sufficiently large 

 to pay the interest on the prime cost of the ma- 

 chine; 3d, that the trees have a clean trunk of 

 some three or four feet. 



There are various modifications of the ma- 

 chine, and Dr. Hull has himself cheapened and 

 simplified the one he has now in nse, by doing 

 away with the funnels and pockets for receiving 

 Iho insects and fallen fruit. He now carries 

 with the machine a bag and a broom, and as oc- 

 casion requires, sweeps the contents of the 

 catcher into the bag, which is afterwards dip- 

 ped in boiling water in order to kill the inmates. 

 This arrangement admits of separating and set- 

 ting at liberty those friends which are knocked 

 down with thje foes; whereas, by the former 

 method the righteous bngs were ignominionsly 



slaughtered with the unrighteous. As may also 

 be seen from the above sketch, the frame cov- 

 ering the wheel is made of pine board, while 

 the handles for propelling the machine are riv- 

 eted aboi-e the canvas instead of being fastened 

 heloie it, and the Doctor finds that this last 

 arrangement gives him better leverage and 

 greater control of the machine. 



THE NEW YOUK WEEVIL. 



[Jlhycenis norchoniceiistti, Forstcr.] 



During the last eight 

 or nine years wo have re- 

 peatedly received speci- 

 mens of this large snout- 

 beetle, with accounts of 

 its injuries to fruit trees, 

 and it seems to have been 

 uncommonly numerous 

 the past spring. It kills 

 the twigs by gnawing oft 

 the tender bark, in the 

 early part of the season 

 before the buds have put 

 out, and later in the year 

 it destroys the tender 

 shoots which start out 

 from old wood, by en- 

 tirely devouring them. It attacks, by prefer- 

 ence, the tender growth of the apple, though it 

 will also make free with that of the peach, plum 

 and pear, and probably of other fruit as well 

 as forest trees. 



This beetle belongs to the same great Curculio 

 f^xmily as does the Plum Curculio ( Conotrachelus 

 nenuphar, Herbst), but, with the rest of the 

 species belonging to the same genus {Ithycerns= 

 straight-horn) it is distinguished from most 

 of the other snout-beetles by the antenn£e or 

 liorns being straight instead of elbowed or 

 llail-sbaped as they are in the common 

 Plum Curculio, for instance. The specific 

 name noveboracensis which means "of New 

 York" was given to this beetle 98 years ago by 

 Forster, doubtless because he received his speci- 

 mens from New York. But like many other in- 

 sects which have been honored with the name 

 of some Eastern State, it is far more common 

 in the Mississippi Valley than it is in the State 

 of New York, it being scarcely known as an in- 

 jurious insect in the East. The general color of 

 the beetle is ash-gray, marked with black as in 

 the cut (Fig. 157 c), and with the scutel or small 

 semi-circular space immediately behind the 

 thorax, between the wings, of a yellowish color. 

 Its larval habits were for a long time unknown, 



