ATTACKING THE FRUIT. 187 



parasite, Porizon conotracheli Riley, is also au Ichneumon fly, 

 with similar habits and of about the same size as the species 

 just referred to. In Fig. 200, a represents the female, and 

 6 the male, both magnified. Neither of these parasites has 

 yet appeared in sufficient numbers to act as an efficient check 

 on the increase of the plum curculio. 



No. 95.— The Plum-gouger. 



Coccotorus scutellaris (Lee). 

 While this insect has some points of resemblance to the 



plum curculio, it is in other respects so diffi^rent as to be easily 



distinguished. The beetle, which is shown magnified in Fig. 



201, is about five-sixteenths of an inch long, with the thorax 



and legs of an ochre-yellow color, while the 



head and wing-cases are brown, with a leaden- ^ig- '^01. 



gray tint, the latter with whitish and black 



spots scattered irregularly over their surface. 



The wing-cases are without humps ; the snout 



is somewhat longer than the thorax, and 



projects forward or downward, but cannot 



be folded under the breast as in the case of 



the plum curculio. It appears in spring 



about the same time as the plum curculio, but, instead of 



making a crescent-shaped slit in the plum, it bores a round 



hole like the puncture of a pin. 



The eggs are deposited in the following manner. With the 

 minute but powerful jaws at the tip of the snout of the female, 

 a hole is made about four-fifths as deep as the snout is long, 

 which is enlarged at the end and gouged out somewhat in the 



' form of a gourd. The egg is placed in the excavation, and 

 pushed down with the snout until it reaches the receptacle 

 prepared for it. After being deposited, it swells from absorp- 

 tion of the surrounding moisture, and within a few days the 

 young larva escapes. 



On escaping from the egg, it makes au almost straight course 

 for the kernel of the plum, through the soft shell of which 



