608 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
them again into life. It was evident that the curved slit in the hark had 
been cut by an insect, which had dropped a half dozen eggs therein, the 
worms from which had fed on the outer layer of the bark directly under 
the cuticle, all eating in the same direction, and thus excavating the little 
cavity in which they were lying. They had travelled but little more than 
the length of their bodies, when cold weather came on to arrest their ope¬ 
rations, for the time. The worms were so very minute—only 5-100ths of 
an inch in length—that no opinion could be formed from them as to what 
insect they were. But the size and shape of the incisions, together with 
the tree in which they appeared, suggested to me that they were the Curcu- 
lio—and consequently that this insect commits its eggs to the bark, in 
which it lies, in its larvae state, during the winter, to complete its growth 
and produce the beetles which make their appearance the following spring. 
I will state one fact more in confirmation of this view, that these insects 
are reared in the bark. The Curculio is so frequently met with on butter¬ 
nut limbs, as to render it altogether probable that this tree is as much a 
favorite abode for it as is the plum and apple. And the larger size of the 
specimens found on the butternut, as has already been remarked, indicate 
that they have been better fed during their larva or growing state. This 
difference in size is so notable that some collectors have placed such speci¬ 
mens in their cabinets, as a distinct species. But, as many other weevils 
vary in their size to an equal or even greater extent, this cannot be regarded 
as a valid ground for regarding them as different. Now as no pulpy suc¬ 
culent fruit or other analogous substance occurs upon the butternut, it is a 
strong indication that this insect consigns its eggs to the bark of the limbs— 
which in this tree is remarkably thick and soft, its texture approaching the 
spongy substance of the black-knots. 
Against this view that the Curculio is nurtured in the bark of trees, and 
there passes the winter ip its larva state, it has been objected that it is 
contrary to all analogy, to suppose that an insect which feeds on young 
fruit should also feed on a substance so dissimilar as the bark of trees. 
But those who make this objection assuredly have but a limited knowledge 
of the habits of insects, and are unaware how diversified those habits often 
are, to accord with the different circumstances in which the insect finds 
itself placed at different times. One of the European insects which is 
most nearly related to our Curculio, both in its form and in its habits, we 
arc told by Kollar, deposits its eggs in the new shoots of the plum when it 
cannot find fruit for this purpose. Moreover the dry spongy matter of the 
black-knot, is as much unlike the juicy young fruit as is the bark. 
To sum up this subject, then—We see this beetle coming abroad with 
the first warm days of spring, individual specimens of it being found the 
last of March ; and soon after the middle of May they appear in full force, 
and continue to be common from that time till the end of the season. As 
it requires but six or eight weeks for the egg to become a mature beetle, 
there are probably three or more generations of it every year—one indi¬ 
vidual after another coming to maturity and laying its eggs, whereby a con- 
