Beetles 
297 
crawl out and into the soil to pupate. The adult beetles soon issue and 
hunt up hibernating quarters. The plum-curculio attacks cherries, and 
also peaches, nectarines, and apricots. In many regions of this country 
it has wholly stopped the growing of plums. Curiously enough, but 
fortunately, this pest does not seem to be able to maintain itself in California, 
where plum (prune) growing is one of the chief industries. A remedy of 
some effectiveness is to jar each plum-tree, under which a sheet has been 
spread, repeatedly during blossoming and fruit-setting time. The curculios, 
alarmed by the jarring, fold up their legs and snout and fall to the ground 
(sheet), where they feign death. This feigning can be turned into reality 
Fig. 406. —Larva and pupa of the quince-curculio, Conotrachelus cratcegi. (After photo¬ 
graphs by Slingerland; at left, larva, natural size and enlarged; at right, pupa much 
enlarged.) 
by any one of various means. Excellent “ curculio-catchers ” consist of 
wheelbarrows on each of which is mounted a large inverted umbrella split 
in front to receive the tree-trunk, against which the barrow (with a padded 
bumper) is driven with force enough to do the jarring. All fallen plums also 
should be promptly gathered and burned or scalded so as to kill the larvae 
within. 
The family Calandridae includes about eighty North American species 
of weevils, of which several are common and familiar under the names of 
corn bill-bugs and rice- and grain-weevils. To the large genus Sphenophorus 
belong the species known as corn bill-bugs, blackish, brown, or rarely gray 
in color, from J to J inch long, with thick and hard elytra which are 
ridged and punctured, as is also the thorax. By day they hide in the soil 
