yo State Horticultural Society. 



There is only one brood of the phnn curculio each year. The adult 

 beetles hatch out for the most part during August and feed for a time 

 by puncturing the apples. At the approach of cold weather they seek 

 hibernating quarters by crawling under rubbish of all kinds, or by crawl- 

 ing in the ground a short distance. There they remain during the 

 winter, coming out the next spring in order to feed upon the young de- 

 veloping leaves, which they do to a slight extent only. The old beetles 

 die in the fall at the approach of cold weather. The beetles coming out 

 in the spring from hibernating quarters begin to deposit their eggs about 

 the middle of May and continue this egg laying until the middle of 

 July. They do this work during a part of the day or a part of the night, 

 or may work all day if it be cloudy. Fortunately for the apple growers, 

 only a small per cent of the eggs deposited in the apples ever succeed in 

 hatching. Of these eggs that do hatch into larva, fortunately, only a 

 small per cent of them ever succeed in reaching the full grown larval 

 existence. For some unaccountable reason the great bulk of them die 

 by the time they are one-fourth grown. It seems necessary for the life 

 and growth of these larva that the apples fall to the ground by the time 

 the larva arc about half grown otherwise the larva appear always to 

 die. If the apple drops, the larva continues to live and grow, and after 

 becoming full grown, eats its way out of the apple and enters the ground. 

 The entire larval stage in the apple lasts about three weeks. 



Wlicn the larva is full grown it leaves the apple and immediately 

 burrows into the ground one or two inches, wiggles its body so as to 

 pack the earth away and make a little cell, and there remains quiet for 

 about two weeks ; it then changes to the pupa stage. The pupa stage 

 lasts from two to three weeks, then transforms to an adult bettle, which 

 at first is light brown in color and quite soft, but gradually becomes 

 darker and darker, and remains in its earthen cell about ten days be- 

 fore it digs its way out to the surface of the soil. The pupa stage, as 

 well as the first week in the life of the adult beetle in the ground, are 

 uncertain ones, since the pupae especiallx' are easily killed by cultivating 

 tlie soil while they are in it. 



The adult beetles on emerging from the soil are lighter in color 

 th.an the older ones but soon gain their proper color. They immediately 

 seek their natural food, and can be found in good numbers during the 

 latter part of July, and during all of August, feeding on the apples and 

 making the punctures or "stings" already described. At the approach of 

 fall these beetles seek (pi.trters in which to pass the winter, while the 

 old beetles, which have not already died, perish. It will thus be seen that 

 n■an^ of the old beetles are still at work in the apples by the tinie the 



