BEETLES. 
25 
CURCULIOS OR WEEVILS. 
Did you ever find a “ worm ” or tiny white grub 
inside a cherry, close to the stone? Did you ever 
see plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and other 
drupes or stone fruits ripen before 
their time and drop from the tree? 
Plums are especially apt to do this; 
and prunes, unless very carefully 
guarded, will wither and fall from 
the trees. This is due to the sting 
of an insect known as a weevil or 
curculio. 
This curious beetle is very unlike Fig. *3* 
those previously studied, in many A Weevi1 ' 
respects. 1. The head is long, prominent, and 
almost straight; eyes small; antennae long and re¬ 
flexed or turned back in all ordinary attitudes of 
the insect. 2. The thorax is almost spherical, 
being broadly egg-shaped. 3. The abdomen is 
very much wider than the thorax, and springing 
outward at right angles to it. This insect has a 
shape not unlike a bottle or vase. The wing- 
covers are variously mottled and ridged. 
If one of the plums previously mentioned be ex¬ 
amined, a scar or wound will be found upon it. 
This wound is a puncture nearly surrounded by a 
crescent-shaped cut. This cut is made by the 
peculiar mouth-parts of the parent weevil, for the 
mouth here also performs the office of ovipositor. 
