84 
APPLE WEEVIL. 
perfectly still. Up to this time the blossom has continued 
healthy, no trace of the enemy being to be discovered 
without ; but when the neighbouring blossoms are expand- 
ing theii* petals to the genial breath of spring, those of the 
mutilated bud remain closed, and retain the arched, bal- 
loon-like appearance of a bud about to burst.* For a few 
days they preserve their lovely pink colour ; and then, by 
degrees, fade to dingy brown. In this state they remain 
until the other apples are well knit ; and then the da- 
maged blossoms, by their decided contrast, appear very 
conspicuous. On opening these brown, or rather rust-co- 
loured blossoms between the 10th and the 15th of June, 
the chrysalis will be found to have changed to a perfect 
beetle, similar to its parent above described, which, had it 
been left to itself, would in a few days have eaten its way 
through the weather-beaten case of dried petals, and left 
its prison-house, flying about to take its pleasure, until the 
chilly winds of autumn should drive it to its winter habita- 
tion under the bark : and in the next spring, the whole 
round of operations through which we have watched its 
parent and itself would be performed with the same un- 
varying, unerring instinct. The cloudy, misty, east wind, 
in which our farmers and gardeners see the blight, is the 
very weather of all least favourable to the propagation and 
increase of these weevils. The fine, clear, sunny days of 
March and April are the most favourable to them. The 
* Within this balloon, as the writer terms it, I have often found a small 
species of Cimex in company with the beetle or its chrysalis : I have never 
been able to detect any aperture through which the Cimex could have entered, 
and although I have been altogether unable to discover any connexion between 
the Curculio and the Cimex, or even to form a conjecture as to the cause of 
their companionship, I cannot for a moment doubt that the welfare of one is in 
some measure dependant on the other. — E. N. 
