76 COLEOPTERA. 



wardness or backwardness of vegetation in the spring, and 

 have frequently caught them flying in the middle of the day. 

 They begin to sting the plums as soon as the fruit is set, 

 and continue their operations to the middle of July, or, as 

 some say, till the first of August. In doing this, the beetle 

 first makes a small crescent-shaj)ed incision, with its snout, 

 in the skin of the plum, and then, turning round, inserts 

 an egg in the wound. From one plum it goes to another, 

 untU its store of eggs is exhausted ; so that, where these 

 beetles abound, not a plum will escape being strmg. Very 

 rarely is there more than one incision made in the same 

 finiit ; and the weevil lays only a single egg therein. The 

 insect hatched fi:om this egg is a little whitish grub, desti- 

 tute of feet, and very mvTch hke a maggot in appearance, 

 except that it has a distinct, rounded, light-brown head. It 

 immediately bvirrows obliquely into the finait, and finally pene- 

 trates to the stone. The irritation, arising fi-om the woimds 

 and from the gnawings of the grubs, causes the young fi-uit 

 to become gummy, diseased, and finally to drop before it 

 is ripe. Meanwhile, the grub comes to its growth, and, im- 

 mediately after the falling of the finiit, quits the latter and 

 burrows in the groimd. This may occur at various times 

 between the middle of June and of August ; and, in about 

 three weeks afterwards, the insect completes its transforma- 

 tions, and comes out of the ground in the beetle form. 



The earliest accoimt of the habits of the plum weevil, that 

 I have seen, was written by Dr. James Tilton, of Wilming- 

 ton, Delaware. It will be found, under the article Fruit, in 

 Dr. James Mease's edition of Willich's " Domestic Encyclo- 

 paedia," pubhshed at Philadelphia in 1803. The same ac- 

 count has been reprinted in the " Georgic Papers for 1809 " 

 of the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, and in other 

 works. According to Dr. Tilton, this insect attacks not only 

 nectarines, plums, apricots, and cherries, but also peaches, 

 apples, pears, and quinces, the truth of which has been abun- 

 dantly confirmed by later writers. I have myself ascertained 



