Report of the State Entomologist 295 



water and kerosene. Oil-cloth might be substituted for the muslin, 

 as it would not wet with the dew when used in the morning, and as 

 affording a smoother rolling surface for the beetles. {Country Gentle- 

 man, xlvi, 1881, p. 259.) 



Oviposition of the Plum Curculio. 



So apt are we to accept as truth statements apparently made of the 

 result of personal observation, that for a long time the egg-laying 6f 

 the curculio was believed to be after the manner described by Dr. 

 Harris, viz. : that the beetle first makes a small crescent-shaped 

 incision with its snout in the skin of the plum, and then turning 

 round inserts an egg into the wound. 



Dr. Fitch has apparently copied from Dr. Harris when he repre- 

 sents the beetle as " making a small crescent-shaped incision upon 

 the side of the young fruit and dropping an egg therein." {First 

 Rept. Ins. New York, 1856, p. 47.) 



Mr. Walsh, in 1867, entertained the belief that the egg was deposited 

 within the crescent cut. He has described the attendant operations 

 as follows: "Alighting upon a plum, she then, with the minute jaws 

 placed at the tip of her snout, proceeds to make the singular crescent- 

 shaped slit iu the skin of the fruit, which is characteristic of the 

 species, and to which the popular name of " little Turk " refers. In 

 this slit she excavates with the same instruments a hole such as a pin 

 would make, to as great a depth as the length of her snout will 

 allow, widening and enlarging it a little at the bottom so as to make 

 it somewhat gourd-shaped. Depositing in the slit a single egg, she 

 next proceeds to crowd it down with her snout to the bottom of the 

 hole where the cavity is sufficiently large enough to avoid all danger 

 of the flesh of the injured plum growing in upon and crushing the 

 egg." {Practical Entomologist, ii, 1867, p. 76.) 



The true method of oviposition was first pointed out by Professor 

 Kilev in his First Report on the Insects of Missouri, in 1869. The egg is 

 not deposited within the crescent. The beetle first makes a cut with 

 her jaws through the skin of the fruit; she then inserts her curved 

 beak beneath the skin, making a hole sufficiently large to receive the 

 egg which is then dropped at the mouth of the opening. Turning 

 around and using her beak, the egg is crowded to the end of the 

 hole. This being done, the crescent cut is next made in front of the 

 egg, undermining it and leaving it in a sort of flap. 



In confirmation of the above, the same method of oviposition 

 coupled with a somewhat more delicate manipulation, has been 

 described to me in a communication from Mr. T. E. Hayward, of 



