100 * THE PLUM CURCULIO. 
Riley’s account of oviposition is, however, much more complete, 
as follows: 
That the egg is deposited in the following manner, the whole process requiring 
about five minutes: Having taken a strong hold on the fruit, the female makes a 
minute cut with the jaws, which are at the end of her snout, just through the skin of 
the fruit, and then runs the snout under the skin to the depth of one-sixteenth of 
an inch, and moves it back and forth until the cavity is large enough to receive the 
egg it is to retain. She next changes her position, and drops an egg into the mouth 
of the cut; then, veering round 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 flap, her object apparently being to deaden this flap 
so as to prevent the growing skin from crushing the egg, though Dr. Hull informs me 
that he has repeatedly 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. 
Prof. J. M. Stedman also described the process: 
In making punctures for the purpose of depositing eggs, the females also eat the 
tissues of the apple, and this is probably the reason why during the egg-laying season 
they do not make as many purely feeding punctures as they do earlier and later in 
the season. The female first eats a small hole through the skin and then eats the pulp 
back about one-sixteenth of an inch, thus making a small cylindrical hole, usually 
quite parallel to the skin. She then turns around and deposits an egg in this hole, 
which is just large enough to receive the egg nicely. Having accomplished this, she 
then eats the tissue while cutting a small crescent-shaped hole through the skin and 
into the pulp so as to partly surround and partly undermine the egg. 
In Prof. Crandall’s studies many attempts were made to secure 
data on the entire operation, but owing to the difficulties of so doing, 
three instances only from start to finish were observed, as follows: 
In the first observation, the female moved about the apple for several seconds, keeping 
the end of her beak in contact with the surface, as if seeking a favorable spot. When 
the exact spot was decided upon, the minute jaws at the end of the snout began a 
rapid movement which quickly made an opening through the skin. This opening 
was no larger than necessary for admission of the tip of the beak. No skin was re- 
moved; it was simply torn and thrust aside to give access to the pulp below. Later, 
as the excavation proceeded, the broken skin was seen as a sort of fringe around the 
beak at the surface of the fruit. As soon as excavation in the pulp was commenced, 
the beak was deflected backward so that the work was carried on under the insect, 
just beneath the skin and nearly parallel with the surface. As the work advanced, 
the opening through the skin became slightly enlarged by lateral motions of the beak. 
The pulp was all eaten as excavated. During the process the beak was not once 
withdrawn, nor was there any cessation of motion. When the excavation of the 
cavity was completed the beak was withdrawn by a quick motion, the insect turned 
about, adjusted the tip of the abdomen to the opening and deposited an egg, which 
was forced to the extremity of the excavation by the ovipositor. The insect now 
rested without motion for two minutes; then, turning again, proceeded to cut the 
crescent in front of the egg. This crescent puncture was not wholly a separate punc- 
ture, but, starting in the original opening through the skin, was cut laterally in either 
direction, partly by the jaws and partly by crowding the beak first one way and then 
the other. The direction of the beak was but little deflected from the perpendicular 
and the cut was made as deep as the length of the beak would allow. The pulp torn 
