Entom. [a. L. curculio, -ōnem corn-weevil.] A Linnæan genus of Beetles, containing the Weevils. Now applied especially to the common fruit-weevils, which are very destructive to plums.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica (1779), 429. The streaked shining Curculio. Ibid., 430. Curculio … This insect is very destructive to flour as well as to most sorts of grain.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Fate, Wks. (Bohn), II. 327. Such an one has curculios, borers, knife-worms.
1882. Garden, 25 March, 191/3. The Curculio has made the cultivation of the Plum impossible in Eastern America.
Hence Curculionideous a., belonging to the Curculionidæ or weevil-family. Curculionist, a specialist in the study of the Curculionidæ.
1881. Athenæum, No. 2827. 904. A curculionideous larva, found feeding in the bulbs of lilies.
1874. Mivart, in Contemp. Rev., XXIV. 362. That this naturalist is a Carabidist, and that a Curculionist.
