GENUINE SNOUT-BEETLES. 195 



operandi is very simple, and requires but a minute and a half to 

 two minutes for the performance of the entire operation. She 

 first spreads out her legs to their full extent, braces them, and 

 then draws her beak or rostrum to as nearly a perpendicular posi- 

 tion as possible, then by gnawing, and with a twisting motion she 

 soon works her snout into the fruit until it is buried a trifle above 

 the bases of the antennae, the latter being held close against and 

 directed upward along the rostrum upon the head while the hole 

 is being made. She now draws out her beak, and deliberately 

 turns about, and after a few preliminary thrusts of the ovipositor 

 inserts the latter into the hole just made with the beak, and de- 

 posits a single egg that is of the diameter of the puncture. The 

 egg is of a dirty whitish, somewhat transparent color, and is 

 plainly visible with an ordinary pocket lens, being uncovered and 

 nearly flush with the surface. It soon becomes covered by a heal- 

 ing of the injured fruit." Each female deposits only one egg in 

 a young plum; if more are found it is the work of different fe- 

 males. The larva that hatches from such an egg is never exposed, 

 hence can not be killed by sprays with arsenical poisons. In en- 

 tering the fruit a transparent or gummy substance collects over 

 the puncture, as is well shown in the illustration. The larva 

 feeds not only upon the flesh of the plum, but upon the flesh of 

 the kernel inside of the stone. Here it undergoes its transfor- 

 mation from a larva to a pupa and to the adult insect, which 

 later leaves as soon as strong enough to do so, and searches for 

 hibernating quarters in and about the orchard. Many of the 

 plums that contain the worms drop, and should be removed and 

 destroyed, but many others remain on the trees long after the 

 beetles have left, and some of them are even still fit for culinary 

 purposes. There is very little use in spraying. Jarring early in 

 the season, at the time the trees are in full bloom, or even a little 

 sooner, will bring down many of these injurious beetles, and if 

 this is done early in the morning they can be readily gathered 

 and killed. The jarring has to be done in a forcible manner, as 

 the beetles cling very tightly to the tree. 



Another species so closely resembling the above species as 



