STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
351 
FEAR. TRUNK. 
But I now come to present a fact which I think will be more 
satisfactory to the reader as to the place and circumstances in 
which this insect passes the winter, than anything which has yet 
been given to the public. In April, 1856,1 received from L. B 
Langworthy of Rochester, a portion of the limb of a pear tree, 
four and a half inches long and less than half an inch thick, upon 
which were about thirty short curved or crescent-shaped incisions 
in the bark, similar to those made by the curculio upon fruit. 
They were all cut lengthwise of the bark, about 0.15 in length, 
and upon their convex side the outer layer of the bark was ele¬ 
vated in a little blister-like spot extending the whole length of the 
crescent and about half as broad as long. On raising this, so as 
to expose the cavity beneath, several little worms, commonly six 
in number, were found therein, torpid and lying in a row side by 
side with their tails toward the crescent and their mouths in con¬ 
tact with the soft green pulp or parenchyma forming the middle 
layer of the bark, ready to eat their way onwards as soon as the 
warmth of spring awakened them again to activity. These worms 
were rather long and narrow, 0.05 in length, broadest across their 
middle, tapering to a point at one end, the opposite or head end 
being rounded. They were without feet, transparent and pale 
yellowish, resembling little specks of gum or turpentine. They 
had evidently come from eggs which had been dropped in the 
curved incision. A few of these incisions had no elevation of the 
bark along their side, in which instances the weevil had doubtless 
been disturbed and abandoned her work before it was completed, 
or the eggs which she deposited in the incision had been dis¬ 
covered and devoured by some predaceous insect. 
Although until these worms have been reared we cannot be 
certain what they are, there is the strongest presumptive evidence 
that they are the progeny of the plum weevil. Fifty years ago, 
one of the best authorities in our country upon a topic of this 
kind, Rev. F. V. Melsheimer of Pennsylvania, stated that the 
larva of this insect lived under the bark of the peach tree. But 
from that day to this, no one of the many who have undertaken 
to investigate this insect, have given any confirmation of this state¬ 
ment. Yet in the light of what is reported above, we cannot but 
"egard it as true. We are informed by Kollar, that the plum 
