ACTING STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
77 
I infer that fruit is infested in New York either by this or by some allied species ; for in 
the Address which lias been already so often quoted, (p. 18,) he says that ‘ ‘ in addition to 
the crescent-shaped slit, the Curculio wounds the fruit by drilling holes therein with its 
beak, resembling punctures made by a coarse pin or needle and he adds that a one or 
more of these punctures may be seen upon almost every fruit which it invades,” and 
that “ it is probably for feeding upon the juicy pulp of the fruit that the insect bores 
these small holes in it.” Now, as already stated, I have had 8 or 10 Curculios shut up 
in a glass vessel for a month, along with a lot of plums that I had previously ascertained 
to be free from punctures or wounds of any kind. These Curculios fed freely upon 
the flesh of the plums. But all their excavations were of the open, hemispherical type 
already described, and there was not a single puncture to be met with, such as the 
Gouger makes and such as Dr. Fitch asserts to be made by Curculios. I cannot think it 
at all probable, therefore, that the Curculio, as Dr. Fitch asserts, commonly causes such 
punctures. Possibly, as this writer appears to be speaking here with more especial 
reference to the apple, the punctures he mentions may have been made by the Four¬ 
humped Curculio (Anthonomus quadrigibbus , Say,) which species I was the first to pub¬ 
lish as infesting the apple in this manner in Illinois, and which causes nearly the same 
kind of puncture in the Apple, as the Gouger causes in the Plum. But neither has 
this species been enumerated as among those, that are injurious to cultivated fruit 
in the East, either by Dr. Harris or by Dr. Fitch, though I presume that it occurs there, 
as Say asserts that it is found generally in the United States. 
Such are some of the many difficulties which the Student of Economic Entomology 
encounters, owing to the custom, too prevalent among closet-naturalists, of despising 
the habits of an animal as unworthy their notice, and devoting their exclusive attention 
to its coloration, its structure, and its classification. “ And yet,” as Agassiz has so 
truthfully remarked, “ without a thorough knowledge of the habits of animals, it will 
never be possible to ascertain with any degree of precision the true limits of all those 
species, which descriptive zoologists have of late admitted with so much confidence in 
their works. And, after all, what does it matter to Science, that thousands of species, 
more or less, should be described and entered in our systems, if we know nothing 
about them?” ( Contributions , &c., I. p. 5 1.) 
Since, as has been shown above, plums infested by the Gouger do not fall premature¬ 
ly from the tree like those which are infested by the Curculio, it is plain that picking 
up and destroying the fallen fruit, though an excellent mode of counterworking the 
latter insect, will be of no avail against the former. Both species, however, can be 
jarred off the trees and destroyed ; and when this process is performed, a sharp look-out 
should be. kept for both. It will also be a useful precaution, whenever a few stunted 
plums are observed to ripen prematurely on any tree, to pluck them off and destroy 
them. In most cases, they will be found to contain, either the perfect Gouger, or the 
larva that is destined subsequently to develop into the Gouger, snugly ensconced in the 
kernel, and often with the hole already bored through the stone for the escape of the 
matured insect. 
The wide differences between the Curculio and the Gouger may be thus briefly stated : 
— The Curculio is beautifully streaked and spotted with black and white and has two 
shining black humps, like black seahng-wax, on its back ; the Gouger is clay yellow m 
front and of a dull lead-color behind, without any humps at all. The Curculio cuts a 
crescent slit in every fruit in which it lays an egg ; the Gouger bores a small round hole 
for this purpose. The Curculio larva bores exclusively in the flesh of the fruit; the 
