HISTORY. 
17 
Fig. 2. 
An early illustration of the plum curculio, frequently used 
between about 1830 and 1850. 
excrescences. In his Entomology of North America, published in 
1831, Thomas Say refers to the curculio as Cryptorfojn'lius argula, 
and gives the opin- 
ion of his kinsman, 
Bartram, as to its 
destructiveness. A 
fairly extended ac- 
count of the insect 
is given by Harris 
in his Insects In j ur- 
ious to Vegetation, 
published in 1841, 
and it was con- 
sidered at length 
by Dr. Asa Fitch 
in his address on 
the curculio and 
black-knot of plum 
trees, delivered be- 
fore the New York 
State Agricultural Society in 1860 (p. 839). 
The most complete account of the insect up to this time, however, 
was that by Dr. Isaac P. Trimble in his Treatise on the Insect 
Enemies of Fruits and Fruit Trees, published in 1865. In this work 
99 quarto pages are devoted to the curculio, accompanied by 8 
colored plates. Many observations are presented as a result of 
personal investigation. Important contributions to a knowledge of 
the insect are given 
in the articles by 
Walsh in the Prac- 
tical Entomologist 
for 1867 (pp. 75-79), 
and in the First An- 
nual Report od the 
Noxious Insects of 
Illinois (pp. 85-96). 
In the First Missouri 
Report, published in 
L869, Dr. C.V.Riley 
gives an extended 
account of the cur- 
culio, summarizing 
the knowledge con- 
cerning it up to that time, and in the Third Missouri Report (1871, 
pp. 11-29) gives further information on its life history, with an ex- 
17262°— Bull. 103—12 2 
Fig. 3.— Peck"s figure of the plum curculio, published with his descrip- 
tion (Rhynchxnus ccrasi) in 1819. 
