INSECTS. 



47 



In addition to the use of sheets and jarring the cuicuHo from 

 the trees, it is recommended to place bits of hark, with the con- 

 cave side down, on the ground tmder the trees, as soon as the 

 spring opens. The cniculio will take shelter on the under side 

 of these pieces of bark, and by turning them over every day and 

 gatheriQg the curculio that wUl be found clinging to the under 

 side, their numbers may be very rapidly diminished. The 

 number that will be found under these chips will be much 

 greater in some seasons than others, varying with the state of 

 the weather. If cold, wet, and storm prevail, they wiU seek 

 shelter under the chips, but if it be warm and pleasant weather 

 they will be found ia the trees. 



Another mode of destroying these insects, which should be 

 employed in addition to both of the foregoing, is the gathering 

 of the injured and fallen fruit, regularly every day, before the 

 curculio grub or larva has time to crawl out of the fruit. Some 

 have fenced in their plum and cherry trees and turned the pigs 

 in to devour the fallen fruit, but when this cannot be done, the 

 fruit should be carefully and regularly picked up, and either fed 

 to the pigs or cooked so as to kill the insects within. 



But now for the insect itself. 

 In Figure 32, e is a magnified 

 representation of the perfect in- 

 sect, the line underneath it indi- 

 cating its natural length ; d 

 shows it, of the natural size, at 

 work on a cherry, on which may 

 be seen the crescent mark, and a 

 dot indicating the position of the 

 egg ; a is the grub or larva, and 

 b the pupa, both magnified. The adjacent lines are intended 

 to show the actual length of the several forms of the curculio. 

 The curculio is a rough, hump-backed beetle, of a brownish 

 gray color, about a fifth of an inch in length, with a short snout. 

 When alarmed, this snout is drawn close up to the body, and 



