188 
[Assembly 
[Letter from Dr. Thaddeua William Harris.] 
Cambridge, Mass., July 23, 1853. 
Hon. E. P. Johnson: Dear Sir—I have read, with some inter¬ 
est, your communication, on some insects that are injurious to the 
buds and young twigs of the apple tree in Michigan, contained in 
the Journal of the New-York State Agricultural Society, for July, 
and also the reply of Dr. Fitch, and his account of other destruc¬ 
tive insects, priuted in the Salem Press, of the 12th instant. 
\ 
On the 22d of June, P. Barry, Esq., the editor of “ the Horti¬ 
culturist,” sent to me a beetle and an apple tree twig, with the 
following remarks: “A gentleman in Wisconsin encloses me the 
weevil and piece of apple tree which accompany this. He says 
they are very destructive to his apple and pear trees, and occa¬ 
sionally to his plum and cherry trees. They attack the branch, 
generally, at the base of a young shoot, and eat it to the pith. 
He thinks it must operate in the night, as he can not find it in 
the day. Have you seen it in Massachusetts ?” 
This large weevil is the Ithycerus JVoveboracensis of my cata¬ 
logue of the insects of Massachusetts, printed in 1835, or the 
Curculio JVoveboracensis of Forster’s Centuria, printed in 1771. It 
is, undoubtedly, the same species that is referred to in your com¬ 
munication, and in Dr. Fitch’s reply. Though not a very abun¬ 
dant species here, it is by no means rare, and it seems to have a 
wide range through the country, being found in most of the New- 
England States, inthe Middle and in the Western States, in Cana¬ 
da and in Newfoundland. I have taken it in Massachusetts, on 
forest trees, particularly oaks, in June and July; but never met 
with it on fruit trees. Nothing is known to me of the habits of 
the insect in its early stages. 
John Reinhold Forster, the first describer of^this fine species, 
found it, as we learn from his “ Catalogue,” in “a most select and 
numerous collection of American animals, belonging to a lady in 
Lancashire.” This lady was the celebrated Anne Blackburne, 
eldest daughter of John Blackburne, Esq., of Warrington, Eng¬ 
land. She received it, with other insects, from New-York, whence 
it was probably sent by one of her brothers, who resided in this 
