Curculio

Curculio, any of various stout-bodied weevils of the beetle family Curculionidae (order Coleoptera). Among the best known is the plum curculio (q.v.), which attacks plums, apples, peaches, and other fruits.

Adult curculios hibernate in trash piles; in the spring the female deposits eggs into holes that she bores in fruit. She also makes a crescent-shaped cut near each hole. After three to five weeks of feeding inside the fruit, the larva emerges and pupates in the ground for one month. Not all curculios attack fruit—Conotrachelus juglandis, for example, feeds on nuts.