84 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



the fi'uit. She then runs the snout slantingly under the skin, to the depth of one- 

 sixteenth of an inch, and moves it back and forth until the cavity is large enough to 

 receive the egg it is to retain. Then she turns around and drojDs an egg into the mouth 

 of the cavity, and after this is accomplished, she resumes her first position, and by 

 means of her snout pushes the egg to the end of the passage, and afterwards delibei-ately 

 cuts the crescent in front of the hole, so as to undermine the egg and leave it in a 

 sort 01 flap. The whole operation requires about live minutes, and her object in cut- 

 ting the crescent is evidently to deaden the flap, so as to prevent the growing fruit 

 from crashing the egg. 



Now that she has completed this task, and has gone off to i^erform a similar 

 operation on some other fruit, let us from day to day watch the egg which we have 

 just seen deposited, and learn in what manner it develops into a Curculio like the 

 parent which produced it — remembering that the life and habits of this one individual 

 are illustrative of tho^e of every Plum Curculio that ever had, or that ever will have, 

 an existence. AVe shall find that the egg is oval, and of a pearly-white color. Should 

 the weather be warm and genial, this egg will hatch in from four to five days, but if 

 cold and unpleasant, the hatching will not take place for a week or even longer, 

 Eventually, however, there hatches from the egg a soit, tiny, footless grub with a 

 horny head, and this grub immediately commences to feed upon the green flesh of the 

 fiaiit, boring a tortuous path as it proceeds. It riots in the fruit — working by prefer- 

 ence around the stone— for from three to Ave weeks, the period varying, as I have 

 amply proved, according to various controlling influences. 



The fruit containing this grub does not, in the majority of instances, mature, but 

 falls prematurelj^ to the ground, generally before the grab is quite full grown. 1 have 

 known fruit to lie on the ground for upwards of two weeks before the grub left, and 

 have found as many as five grubs in a single peach which had been on the ground for 

 several days. When the grub has once become full grown, however, it forsakes the 

 fruit which it has ruined, and burrows from four to six inches in the ground. At this 

 time it is of a glassy yellowish-white color, though it usually partakes of the color of 

 the fruit-flesh on which it was feeding. It is about two-fifths of an inch long, with 

 the head light brown ; there is a lighter line running along each side of its body, with 

 a row of minute black bristles below, and a less distinct one above it, while the 

 stomach is rust-red, or blackish. The full grovt'n larva presents, in fact, the appear- 

 ance of Figure 1, a. 



In the gi-ound, by turning round and round, it compresses the earth on all sides until 

 it has formed a smooth oval cavity. Within this cavity, in the course of a few days, 

 it assumes the pupa form, of which Figure 1, h, will afford a good idea. 



After remaining in the ground in this state for just about three Aveeks, it becomes a 

 "'beetle, which, though soft and uniformly reddish at first, soon assumes its natural 

 ■colors ; and, when its several parts are sufficiently hardened, works through the soil to 

 the light of day. 



So much for the natural history of the ' ' Little Turk. " Now let us mention a few 

 other facts which it becomes us as fruit-growers to know. 



The Curculio when alarmed, like very many other insects, and especially such as 

 belong to the same great Order of Beetles {Coleoptera), folds up its legs close to the 

 body, turns under its snout into a groove which receives it, and drops to the ground. 

 In doing this it feigns death, so as to escape from threatened danger, and does in 



