WEEVIL VERSUS CURCULIO

Extract

Curculio is an ancient Roman word, not at all used to denote a plum insect. It is slightly difficult to pronounce, and it certainly fails to inform the popular mind as clearly as the suggestive oid Anglo-Saxon word, “weevil.”

Weevil, in its original and right use, designates only insects of the snout-beetle kinds, like the plum weevil, bean and pea weevils, corn or granary weevil, rice, pine, nut, water, and other weevils. Perhaps the only erroneous use of weevil made in this country was with the little yellow maggot of the wheat fly.