THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 215 



EXTENT OF INJURY CAUSED BY THE PLUM GOUGER. 



The plum gouger is believed to be a more objectionable pest 

 than the plum curculio. The work of Prof. Gillette in Iowa seems 

 to show conclusively that where the two weevils were working side 

 by side on American plums the gouger was markedly more injuri- 

 ous. By actual count a much larger per cent of plums were eaten 

 into by the gouger than by the weevil. Fruits containing grubs of 

 the curculio soon drop to the ground, thus tending to induce a 

 larger growth in the plums left on the tree. This process of thin- 

 ning may in some cases be a positive benefit, and result in a greater 

 market value of the crop. Even this small benefit cannot be credited 

 to the gouger. Its ways are wholly bad, for fruits containing its 

 larvae mature on the tree, taking their full proportion of nourish- 

 ment. 



Prof. Lugger, writing on this insect in his "Beetles Injurious 

 to Our Fruit Producing Plants," after speaking of Minnesota's worst 

 insect and fungous pests of the plum, said "The plum gouger is th* 

 most destructive of the above named insects in Minnesota. It is a 

 reddish brown snout beetle, with a peculiar pruinose, almost vel- 

 vety surface, and is of a very different shape from the better known 

 but less common plum curculio. In the spring of 1896 the plum 

 trees on and near the Iowa Experiment farm were in full bloom 

 and promised rich returns, but before long one flower after another 

 dropped ofif, and but comparatively few were left upon the trees 

 and in some cases none remained. When the cause of this trouble 

 was investigated it was found that this snout beetle was busily 

 engaged in gouging holes in the flowers, which, in consequence, 

 shrivelled and dropped." 



The injuries from this weevil are apparent at all tlic stages in 

 the development and growth of the plum. First, as the blossoms 

 are appearing and the young plums setting, the beetles appear and 

 destroy a large proportion of the crop at the outset, and, second, as 

 the crop approaches maturity, a part or all of the plums are found 

 to be rendered worthless for the market by the presence of injured 

 spots caused by gouges made by the beetles when the plums were 

 very young. Some of these gouged plums contain immature beetles 

 in the pits and some none. 



