THE PEACH. 267 



tion, and drops an egg into the mouth of the cut; then, veer- 

 ing around again, she pushes it by means of her snout to the 

 end of the passage, and afterwards cuts the crescent in front 

 of the hole so as to undermine the egg and leave it in a sort 

 of a flap; her object apparently being to deaden this flap so 

 as to prevent the growing fruit from crushing the egg, though 

 Dr. Hall informs me that he has regularly removed the insect 

 as soon as the egg was deposited and before the flap was 

 made, and the egg hatched and the young penetrated the 

 fruit in every instance. 



17. That the egg is oval, of a pearl-white color, large 

 enough to be seen with the naked eye, requires a tempera- 

 ture of at least 70° Fahr. to hatch it, and may be crushed 

 with the finger-nail without injuring the fruit. 



18. That the stock of eggs of one female consists of from 

 50 to 100; that she deposits from 5 to 10 a day, her activity 

 varying with the temperature. 



19. That the last of those curculios which hybernated in 

 the imperfect state under ground, have not finished depositing 

 till the end of June and beginning of July, or about the time 

 that the new brood developed from the first laid eggs of the 

 season are beginning to issue from the ground; and that we 

 thus have them in the month of June in every conceivable 

 state of existence from the egg to the perfect insect. 



20. That the period of the egg depositing thus extends 

 over two months. 



21. That all eggs deposited before the first of July gene- 

 rally develop and produce curculios the same season, which 

 issue from the ground during July, August and September, 

 and hybernate in the perfect state. 



22. That most of those which hatch after the first of July, 

 either fail to hatch, or the young larvae die soon after hatch- 

 ing, owing, perhaps, to the more ripe and juicy state of the 

 fruit, being less congenial to them ; and that what few do ma- 

 ture, which hatch after this date, undergo their transforma- 

 tions more slowly than the rest, and pass the Winter in the 

 ground. 



23. That the perfect curculio while in the ground is soft 



