202 



THE APPLE 



Investigations of the character and extent of this beetle's injury 

 to fruits show that it is almost, and in some instances quite, as 

 inimical to apple-growing as to peach-growing. The form of the 

 injury is radically different, however. Except in extremely rare 

 cases, curculio larvae do not mature in the apple. The female 

 deposits eggs freely in them, and the majority of them hatch, but 

 unlike those hatched in peaches a very small percentage survive 

 the larval state. They succumb to the forces exerted upon them 

 by the natural enlargement and cell 

 formation of the apple, and work no 

 injury except that of giving to the 

 fruit a distorted shape and surface 

 imperfections, arising from the egg 

 and feeding punctures. This injury, 

 however, is costly to the apple- 

 grower. As a medium for the per- 

 petuation of its species, the apple is 

 fatal to the curculio. 



Description and history of the 

 plum curculio. The beetle is a 

 member of a family of weevils con- 

 spicuous for the taxation they im- 

 pose on cultivated and stored crops. 

 The adult curculio is a beetle about 

 a fifth of an inch in length, and is 

 armed with a proboscis, or snout, a 

 third as long as itself. The color is 

 black or dark gray, marked with ochre yellow and white. The 

 back is ridged, bearing two well-developed humps, besides several 

 minor prominences. 



Because of its natural secretiveness and its relative inactivity 

 in exposed places during daylight hours, the beetle is seldom seen 

 on the trees by even the most careful observer. A peculiarity of 

 the species is that it resorts to alleged " possum " tactics to escape 

 observation, and will simulate death by curling up and dropping 

 to the ground when disturbed. The beetles could be easily caught 

 by jarring them from the trees onto sheets spread beneath, and 

 picking them up while they are motionless and apparently dead. 



Fig. 87. Apple weevil. (Photo 

 graph by F. E. Brooks) 



