INSECTS. 



49 



the curculio grub has finished its growth, so that it may find its 

 way just at that time into the ground. Shortly after the plums 

 drop, the grubs eat their way out of the fruit, crawl iato the 

 ground a short distance, and then make for themselves a small 

 cavity, ia which they change into the pupa state. During this 

 stage they are inactive, and remain confined in their subterra- 

 nean ceU some three or four weeks, by which time they have 

 become, developed into perfect beetles, and crawl forth to lay 

 more eggs and destroy more fruit. 



Annoying and destructive as the curculio has been, there is 

 notwithstanding no reason for allowing it to deprive us of our 

 fruit, for with the knowledge we now have of its habits and of 

 the means of capturing it, none but the lazy and careless will go 

 without an abundance of cherries and plums. 



The Geapb Vine Flea Beetle. — Haltiea chalyhea. — ^This 

 insect feeds on the grape vine both in the beetle and larva state, 

 and is often very destructive to 

 the grape crop. It is very small, 

 of a bright steel-blue color, though 

 sometimes it is quite green, and 

 jumps, when one tries to catch it, 

 with the agility of a flea. Fig. 

 33, li, is a representation of this 

 beetle, and b shows it in the larva 

 state; both are magnified, the true 

 size being indicated by the hair 

 line at the side of each, a is a 

 . leaf, perforated by these larvse, Kg. ss. 



which are shown at work upon it, and c is a representation of 

 the pupa. 



It does the greatest injury in the beetle state. Just as the 

 buds are bursting in the spring, these little fellows, who have 

 been fasting all the winter, and are. too impatient to wait until 

 the leaves are expanded, begin to feed on the opening buds, 

 eating up leaves. Bt«ms, grapes and all, as they lie enfolded in the 



