1891.] Entomology. 65 
and Howard in the Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 
1888. In this article the author summarized the experiments of Al- 
wood, Cook, Osborn, Forbes, and Weed, and made the following con- 
cluding statement: 5 
‘© On the whole, the remedy is one which is a desirable addition to 
our list, although it will never become so great a success as the applica- 
tion of these poisons for the Codling Moth, and for two reasons: (1) 
The egg is deposited, and the beetle gnaws, preferably upon the smooth 
cheek of the fruit, where the poison does not so readily adhere, and 
from which it is more easily washed off ; (2) the larva, eating directly 
from the flap, does not come in contact with the poison, as does the 
larva of the Codling Moth.”’ 3 
In the Department Report article already referred to Riley and 
Howard state that ‘‘ there can be no doubt but [that] practical use has 
demonstrated that the jarring method is the most effective way yet 
proposed for destroying these insects.”’ ® 
I have already called attention? to the fallacy of the arguments con- 
tained in the next to the last of these paragraphs ; but as the periodical 
in which my letter was published seems not to be generally circulated 
among entomologists, and as there was also a printer’s blunder which 
misrepresented my remarks, they may be quoted in this connection. 
Referring to the reasons given for the assertion that spraying for the 
Curculio ‘‘ will never become as great a success’’ as in the case of the 
Codling Moth, I said: ‘The fallacy of these arguments lies in the 
assumption that the modus operandi of the method is the same for both 
insects,—an assumption that obviously is not justified by facts. In the 
case of the Codling Moth, the remedy acts by destroying the larva after 
it has hatched from the egg, while with the Curculio it acts by destroy- 
ing the beetle before the eggs are laid. This throws the arguments con- 
cerning the place of oviposition and the food habits of the larva entirely 
out of court, leaving only that expressed in the phrase, ‘The beetle 
gnaws preferably upon the smooth skin of the fruit, where the poison 
does not so readily adhere [as in the calyx, of the apple?], and from 
which it is more easily washed off.’ To what extent this is true, and 
what importance should be attached to it under the circumstances, are 
openquestions. The green fruit of many, at least of the so-called 
foreign plums, is covered with a fine pubescence, in which particles of 
London purple or Paris green readily lodge, and are not easily blown 
or washed away. 
Š Rept. Am. Pom. Soc., 1889, p. 34- 
ê Report U. S. Department Agriculture, 1888, p. 68. 
7 Agricultural Science, Vol. IV., p. 98- 
Am. Nat.—January.—5. 
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