28 
THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
Fig. 5.— The apple curculio (Anthonomu 
quadrigibbus). (From Riley.) 
The foregoing shows a grand total of loss each year, including cost 
of remedial operations resulting from the attack of the curculio, of 
about $8,500,000. This amount, while by no means large as meas- 
ured by the destruction caused by certain other insect pests, as the 
cotton-boll weevil, Hessian fly, etc., is nevertheless a heavy drain 
upon the fruit-growing industry of the 
country. Unquestionably this injury 
will be reduced more and more in the 
future following a more general adop- 
tion of spraying, especially of peaches 
and plums — now entirely feasible, as 
elsewhere shown (p. 214). 
The sum total of losses due to the 
ravages of the curculio during the past 
175 years would amount to an exceed- 
ingly large sum, though its injuries have 
become especially noticeable within 
comparatively recent years along with the enormous development 
of the fruit-growing industry. During the past 25 or 30 years the 
total losses caused by this insect, to the 
various fruits which it attacks, would 
on a conservative estimate probably 
be not less than $100,000,000. 
INSECTS LIKELY TO BE MISTAKEN 
FOR THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
The work of the plum curculio is 
well known to most fruit growers 
within its area of distribution, and 
many have seen the adult or beetle. 
Others, however, know the insect only 
from its work, or as the grub or worm 
in the peach, plum, or cherry. Not 
infrequently specimens of beetles are 
received by the Bureau of Entomology 
from correspondents who believe them 
to be the plum curculio, and which, while mostly true snout beetles, 
are quite different from this insect. Among those thus likely to be 
mistaken for the curculio are the following: 
The apple curculio, Anthonomus quadrigibbus Say (fig. 5). 
The plum gouger, Anthonomus scutellaris Lee. (fig. 6). 
Fig. 6.— The plum gouger (Anthonomus 
scutellaris). (From Insert Life.) 
