. The American fruit culturist. the insect. The curculioscome from their hiding places soon after the fruits are set, orwhen they are not larger than peas, and soon egg-lajingbegins. This is an interesting operation. Alighting on a fruit, the mother beetle, with her jaws,which are situated at the endof the long snout, makes asmall cut through the skin ofthe fruit and runs her snout ob-liquely into the flesh just underthe skin and gouges out a cavitylarge enough to receive her&%%. Then turning around, anegg is dropped into the hole,and again turning, she pushesit into the cavity with hersnout.
. The American fruit culturist. the insect. The curculioscome from their hiding places soon after the fruits are set, orwhen they are not larger than peas, and soon egg-lajingbegins. This is an interesting operation. Alighting on a fruit, the mother beetle, with her jaws,which are situated at the endof the long snout, makes asmall cut through the skin ofthe fruit and runs her snout ob-liquely into the flesh just underthe skin and gouges out a cavitylarge enough to receive her&%%. Then turning around, anegg is dropped into the hole,and again turning, she pushesit into the cavity with hersnout. Just in front of this holethe mother now deftly makesa crescent - shaped slit (), which she extends obliquely underneath the egg-cavity so as to leave the q,%% in a sort of a flap of flesh,apparently her object being to prevent the growth of thefruit from crushing her very tender egg. This whole opera-tion requires about five minutes. One female is said to de-posit from fifty to one hundred eggs—a few each day. One. Fig. 253.—The Plum Cres-cent Mark on a Cherry, naturalsize. DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 187 can readily see the eggs with the naked eye by carefullyremoving the skin of the fruit behind the crescent cut. The€ggs hatch in from three to seven days, and the little white^rubs burrow into and feed upon the flesh around the stonefor about a month. Infested fruits, cherries excepted, usually fall to the groundIjefore the grubs mature. When full grown (Fig. 252), the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectfruitculture, bookyea
