640 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



Fig. 258. 



UNDERWOOD S 

 WASP-CATCIIBR. 



plan for ridding us of one of our most voracious 

 and destructive enemies. The wasp-catcher, or 

 entomological forceps, fig. 258, the invention of 

 Mr Underwood, cutler, Hay: 

 market, London, is well adapt- 

 ed for catching such stray 

 wasps as may find their way 

 into the vinery after the open- 

 ings have been covered with 

 gauze netting — of which, by 

 the way, that of Haythorn of 

 Nottingham is the best— or 

 such female wasps as appear 

 early in the season, for the 

 capture of one of these is tan- 

 tamount to the destruction of 

 a whole nest in July or Au- 

 gust. We have used them for 

 sixteen years, and consider 

 them a valuable and indis- 

 pensable implement in every, 

 garden. 



CurcuUo betuleti, Shynchites 

 betuleti Schonh., has appar- 

 ently been confounded with 

 Rhynchites bacchus, which has 

 also been considered as the 

 peculiar enemy to the vine, 

 whereas it is never found on that plant, but 

 on pears and other fruit trees. It is the R. 

 betuleti, or vine-weevil, that infests the vinery. 

 This is a small weevil, of a greenish or steel- 

 blue colour, 4 lines long, including the ros- 

 trum, which is nearly a third of the whole 

 length. On the thorax of the male, towards 

 the front, on both sides, are observed short 

 spines. The abdomen is almost quadrangular. 

 The spines are wanting on the thorax of the 

 female, and her rostrum is shorter. The beetle 

 appears in spring as soon as the trees are in full 

 foliage, and begins its work of destruction in 

 May. It makes use of the vine partly for a 

 dwelling, and partly for the food of its young. 

 She commences operations by cutting the petiole 

 of the leaf about half-way through, so as to cause 

 it to fall down. She then begins to roll the leaf 

 together, generally alone, but sometimes assisted 

 by the male. While this operation is going for- 

 ward, she also lays her eggs; that is, she pierces 

 the roll, lays an egg in the opening, and pushes 

 it in with her rostrum in such a manner that it 

 remains on the inner surface of the leaf. When 

 she has introduced five'or.six eggs in this man- 

 ner, between the difierent folds, she rolls the 

 remaining part of the leaf entirely together. In 

 a few days the eggs are hatched in the rolls, and 

 a, whitish small worm comes out of each egg, 

 with black oblique stripes over the back, and a 

 reddish head. The young worm subsists on the 

 leaf, and as only a few eggs are laid in a roll, 

 each maggot finds sufficient nourishment to 

 enable it to attain its full size. In four or five 

 weeks it is fully grown. In the mean time the 

 leaf has become so dry that they are easily 

 blown off by the wind, and by this means the 



Fig. 259. 



BLACK VINE-WEEVIL. 



worm falls to the earth. If this does not take 

 place, the worm leaves the partly-consumed leaf 

 when fully grown, and reaches the earth, where 

 it buries itself, to reappear in spring as a weevil. 

 The black-vine weevil {^Curculio sulcatus Fab.), 

 fig. 269, is another vine weevil sometimes de- 

 structive to vines in hot- 

 houses, appearing in the 

 open air from May to June, 

 and in hothouses much ear- 

 lier. Their appearance in 

 the vineries at Studley 

 Castle is recorded by Mr 

 Edwards, and they are stat- 

 ed to have made sad havoc 

 amongst the young shoots 

 and foliage, appearing there 

 about January, from which 

 period till the end of April 

 they feed on the buds and 

 leaves, and this probably 

 during night, as they are 

 seldom seen during the 

 day. In their maggot state 

 they live on the roots of 

 the vines, which they great- 

 ly weaken. About June the 

 maggots change to pupae, according to the state- 

 ments of some ; while others -say that they live 

 in the ground all winter, and are metamor- 

 phosed in spring. 



The clay-coloured vine-weevil {CurcuUo pici- 

 pis Fab.), another species nearly allied to the 

 last, is equally destructive in the vinery. Like the 

 last, this feeds by night, and may then be found 

 gnawing the young wood, or feeding on the tips 

 of the shoots. Both are supposed to be brought 

 into vineries along with the leaves used to fill 

 the pits. They lurk under the old rugged bark 

 of the vine, which should be removed during 

 winter, and the wood washed or scrubbed with a 

 hard brush. Ruricola, in " Gardeners' Chronicle," 

 suggests the following mode of capture, which 

 we think an excellent expedient; namely, "As 

 soon as the beetles appear, sieves should he held 

 at night under the branches and leaves, when, 

 by shaking, the beetles will readily fall into the 

 sieves ; but as they drop down when approached, 

 this operation must be proceeded with gently 

 and quietly. Multitudes may be thus collected 

 both in and out of doors, and if the person who 

 carries the light has a pail of water, the sieves 

 can be emptied into it." This will prevent their 

 escape; and when the operation is completed, 

 the whole should be cast into boiling water, or 

 the water into which they have been already 

 thrown should be boiled, or the whole thrown 

 into the nearest furnace; because, on account 

 of their homy cover, they are capable of resist' 

 ing uninjured any amount of heat under the 

 boiling point. 



2'he European names of the grape-tine are-^ 

 Vite, Italian— Vigne, French— Wyngaard, Dutch 

 — Weinstock, German — Vid, Spanish — Wino- 

 grad, Russian. 



