352 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
PEAR. TRUNK. 
weevil of Europe (Rhynchites cupreus) when there is no fruit for 
it, resorts to the new shoots in which to place its eggs. All the 
circumstances, therefore, lead us strongly to the opinion that the 
conjecture advanced by Dr. Harris in the first edition of his 
Treatise, but since abandoned by him, is correct, namely, that 
those beetles which are hatched the latter part of the season, 
finding no young fruit in which they can deposit their eggs, are 
obliged to resort to the smooth tender bark of the branches of our 
different fruit trees, and the worms from these eggs repose in, not 
under the bark, through the winter, and produce the beetles 
which appear the following June and oviposite in the young fruit. 
If this opinion as to the winter quarters of the curculio proves 
to be correct, it may lead us to most important results. After 
allowing for all casualties, it is probable that a hundred beetles 
might have been matured from the short piece of limb which came 
under my observation. The worms, however, are only covered 
by the epidermis and the thin outermost layer of the bark. Soft- 
soap or some other alkaline substance applied externally, there is 
little doubt would penetrate through this covering sufficiently to 
destroy these worms when they are so small and tender. And it 
appears probable that by a careful inspection of the limbs of those 
trees whose fruit has been destroyed and other trees standing 
adjacent to these, the winter retreat of this enemy may be dis¬ 
covered by the marks he places upon the bark, and a remedy may 
then be applied with greater ease and which will be more effec¬ 
tual for his destruction than anything hitherto suggested. 
53. Pear bark-locse, Lecanium Pyri, ScUrank. (Homoptcra. Coccidse.) 
A hemispherical shell, the size of a half pea, of a chestnut 
brown color, adhering to the under side of the limbs. See Trans¬ 
actions, 1854, p. 809. 
54. Scurfy bark-louse, ufspidiotus furfurus , new species. (Iloraoptera. 
Coccidee.) 
Little round or oval white wax-like blisters on the smooth bark 
of the pear tree. 
I know this only from specimens found upon the same limb of 
the pear tree from the garden of L. B. Langworthy of Rochester, 
on which the incisions of the plum weevil above spoken of occurred. 
