OF THE FAEM AND GARDEl^. 



185 



fill. The borer may be prevented from laying lier eggs, 

 by surrounding the base of the tree with paper, which 

 should extend for two inches below, and at least six 

 inches above the surface of the ground, securing the 

 upper portion by means of string or wire. Cloth and 

 other preventives may be used in the same manner. 



THE PLUM CURCULIO. 

 {Conotrachelus nenuphar, Herbst.) 



The Plum Curculio, commonly known all over the 

 country as The Ourculio, is a small, roughened, warty, 

 brownish beetle, belonging to a very extensive family 

 known as Snout-beetles {Curculionidce). It measures 

 about one-fifth of an inch 

 in length, exclusive of 

 the snout, and may be 

 distinguished from all 

 other North American 

 Snout-beetles by having 

 an elongate, knife -edged 

 hump, resembling a piece 

 of black sealing-wax, on 

 the middle of each wing- 

 case, behind which humps Fig. ii6-plum cuRcrLio. 



there is a broad clay-yel- {Gonoimchelm nenuphar, Herbst.) 

 , , T . , , «, Larva ; h, Pupa ; c. Beetle ; a. Beetle at 



low band, with more or work, 

 less white in its middle. The engraving, figure 116, c, 

 shows the magnified beetle, and at figure 117 it is 

 represented at work, still more enlarged. 



This is the perfect or imago form of the Curculio; and 

 it is in this hard, shelly, beetle state, that the female 

 passes the winter, sheltering under the shingles of houses, 

 under the old bark of both forest and fruit trees, under 

 logs and in rubbish of all kinds. As spring approaches, 



