266 THE PEACH. 



when containing larv?e, usually fall to the ground. In the 

 larger fruits, four or five larvae may sometimes be found in a 

 single specimen, and I have taken five full grown larvge from 

 a peach that had evidently fallen and laid on the ground for 

 over a week. 



10. That the greater portion of them pass the Winter in 

 the perfect beetle state, under the old bark of both forest and 

 fruit trees, under shingles, logs, and in rubbish of all kinds, 

 and especially in the underbrush of the woods. 



11. That they are always most numerous in the early part 

 of the season on the outside of those orchards that are sur- 

 rounded by timber, and that they frequently shelter in apple 

 trees and other trees before the stone fruit forms. 



12. That a certain portion of them also pass the Winter 

 under ground, both in the larvae and pupa states, at a depth 

 frequently of from two to three feet. 



13. That those that hybernate as beetles begin to leave 

 their Winter quarters and to enter our orchards, throughout 

 central Missouri, during the first days of ^lay, and com- 

 mence to puncture the fruit about the middle of the same 

 month — a little earlier or later, according to the season — the 

 fruit of the peach being at the time about the size of a small 

 marble. 



14. That those which hybernate under ground continue to 

 develop, and to issue from the earth during the whole month 

 of May. 



15. That both males and females puncture the fruit for 

 food, by gouging liemispherical holes, but that the female 

 alone make the well known crescent-shaped mark (see figure 

 18, a) as a nidus for her egg. 



16. That the egg is deposited in the following manner, the 

 whole process requiring about five minutes: Having taken a 

 strong hold on the fruit (see figure 18 d), the female makes a 

 minute cut with the jaws, which are at the end of her snout, 

 just through the skin of the fruit, and then runs the snout 

 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. She next changes her posi- 



