o8 THE INSECT WORLD. 



contains a small lancet, she pierces the skin of the olive ; she moves 

 her wings and lays her ^go^. She afterwards cleans and rests herself, 

 by passing her feet over her head, wings, and other parts of her 

 body. She then flies away, and seeks another olive, to deposit in it 

 another egg ; she repeats this operation until she has placed on as 

 many olives the three or four liundred eggs which she bears/' 



Fig. 66, taken from the Memoir published by M. Guerin- 

 Meneville, in the "Revue Nouvelle" of the 15th July, 1847, shows 

 the Dacus- laying its eggs on the olive, and the larvae that are already 

 hatched in another of the same fruit. The larvse which succeed 

 these eggs (Fig. 67) are whitish, soft, and without limbs. They pass 

 fifteen or sixteen days in boring a gallery in the pulp of the ohve, at 



Fig. 67- Fig. 63. 



Larvse of Dacus olese (magnified and natural size). Gallery formed by larva of Dacus olese. 



first vertically, until they reach the stone, then on one side, and 

 along the side of the stone. When they have reached the term of 

 their development, they approach the surface, enlarging the first 

 channel and leaving between it and the exterior air only a thir 

 pellicle, in the middle of which may be perceived the first smaf 

 opening by which the mother had introduced her Qgg in the com 

 mencement. 



Fig. 68, copied from a drawing in the Memoirs of M. Gue'rin 

 Meneville, shows the gallery bored round the olive by the larva 

 the Dacus. The larva thus prepares an easy issue for the perfec 

 insect. Its skin then contracts, its body diminishes in length, and i: 

 transformed into an oval cocoon, which soon gets brown, and is th( 

 chrysalis of the insect. At the side of the head it shows a curvec 

 line, a thin suture which marks a sort of cap or door, which, at th( 

 time of its hatching, the insect will be easily able to force open wid 

 its head. The fly is hatched twelve days after its metamorphosi 



