158 Mr. J. O. Westwood’s Observations on the 
at maturity before the rest of the same description of fruits, and 
fall to the ground, having yielded not to over ripeness, but to the 
internal attacks of these small destructives. Some fruits, however, 
appear to be free from their attacks, — grapes are not attacked in 
their bunches, and Reaumur tells us that the common almonds are 
free from them. This author states that the eggs of fruit-devour- 
ing Lepidopterous insects are placed by the females upon the fruit, 
although sometimes they are so small and young, that the petals 
of the flower have not yet fallen, and that even sometimes they 
are deposited in the midst of the petals and the pistil. The grubs, 
which are soon afterwards hatched from these eggs, thus find 
themselves at their birth placed upon a tender fruit, into which 
they immediately burrow without difficulty, where they then find 
themselves in the midst of food which they love, and are also 
completely hidden from view. The entry which they thus make in 
the fruit closes so completely, that it is difficult, or indeed impos- 
sible, to discover the little passage by which they have gained 
admission. With this explanation as to the mode of introduction 
of insects within the interior of the fruit, Reaumur has given us 
the history of various species of insects detrimental to the fruiterer 
or seedsman, including that of a large Lepidopterous caterpillar 
found in the pod of Haricot beans, a species of butterfly apparently 
belonging to the genus Tliecla, the larva of which is found in the 
pod of the bladder nut; that of Bruchus granarius, Tinea hordei, 
Tephritis cerasi, Torlrix pomonana, &c. From these inquiries, 
M. Reaumur considers that the caterpillars of these frugivorous 
species do not quit the fruit until they are prepared to become 
chrysalides, and that when they quit their abode, it is not with a 
view of again returning there. Moreover, one insect alone is 
found in each fruit, unless it happens that two distinct species of 
larvae are found in the same fruit ; hence he concludes that the 
female has the instinct to deposit only a single egg in each fruit, 
and hence that each female has the means of ascertaining in some 
mode or other whether the fruit has already been visited either 
by herself, or by another female of the same species. This is a 
curious circumstance, when we consider that the size of some 
fruits is such that one would be sufficient to supply a whole colony 
of small larvae. And he repeats more than once his opinion, that 
notwithstanding the hardness of their coverings, these fruits are 
pierced by the insect at a time when they are still tender. In his 
last observation, however, he adds, that the fruit is pierced “ soit 
par la mere de l’insecte, soit par l’insecte naissant.” 
From these observations it is however evident, that as to the mode 
