plum curculio

noun

: an American weevil (Conotrachelus nenuphar) that is very destructive to plums, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and other stone fruits and to apples, the adult feeding on the leaves of these trees and laying its eggs in crescent-shaped incisions made in the fruit and the larva migrating inward and feeding upon the pulp around the stone or core

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Cite this Entry

“Plum curculio.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plum%20curculio. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.

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