384 Bulletin 148. 



lead into egg chambers or feeding pits. In figure 193 are shown 

 sections through two egg chambers. It will be seen that the pits are 

 considerably larger than the eggs, and are irregular in shape. After 

 eating out the pit with her snout, the mother beetle doubtless simply 

 turns around and deposits the egg through the hole in the skin, 

 perhaps then pushing it down to the bottom of the pit with her snout, 

 'J'his completes the operation, there being no crescent cut made as in 

 the case of its near relative, the plum curculio. 



The quince curculio's egg is of a semi-transparent, whitish color, 

 and of the form shown in figure 193. It measures .56 mm. in 

 diameter, and is .9 mm. long. Under low magnifying powers, the 

 shell of the egg appears smooth, but when greatly magnified, the 

 whole surface is seen to be finely reticulated with ridges which outhne 

 small, four to six-sided areas. The egg seems to have a harder or 

 thicker shell than that of the plum curculio, for it is certainly less 

 easily crushed. This fact and the fact that the quince fruit grows 

 comparatively slower than the plum may explain why the quince 

 curculio finds it unnecessary to make any crescent cut to prevent its 

 egg from being crushed by the growth of the fruit. 



Evidently the egg-laying period of the beetles is of considerable 

 duration. We examined the ovaries of one ciu-culio soon after she 

 had begun to lay her eggs, and found therein many eggs, as yet only 

 partially developed. We were able to count nearly 30 eggs in all 

 stages of development in the ovaries of the beetle examined. Thus, 

 30 is doubtless approximately the number of eggs which each curcuho 

 lays, and probably two weeks or more elapse before this full quota is 

 laid. 



In August, 1897, the eggs hatched in from seven to ten days, and 

 the little grubs at once began eating their way into the fruit. 



Habits of the grubs. — The grubs continue feeding in the fleshy part 

 of the fruit for about a month, forming therein a large " worm-eaten " 

 cavity, as shown in figure 194. They usually do not extend their 

 operations into the core of the fruit, as does the codling-moth cater- 

 pillar. When full grown, the grubs eat their way to the surface of the 

 fruit, forming the familiar " worm hole " leading into the blackish, 

 disgusting-looking cavity in the flesh. 



Usually most of the '* wormy " fruits remain hanging on the tree, 

 and it is often impossible to distinguish them until the grub makes its 



