18 SPRAYING PEACHES, 
Egg-laying habits.—Peaches are less suitable for the egg-laying 
purposes of the curculio than smooth-skinned fruits, such as plums, 
apples, etc. Observations by Mr. Jenne indicate that the fuzz may 
be so copious on young peaches as to prevent the puncturing of the 
skin by the beetle. He observed that eggs were frequently deposited 
at the bottom of a tubular boring excavated down in the fuzz as far 
as the skin of the peach, which was usually scraped somewhat, later 
resulting in a russet spot on the fruit. In older fruit, however, the 
female is able to place her eggs under the skin 
in about the usual manner. In ovipositing, a 
hole is first excavated through the skin and 
into the flesh, about as deep as her snout will 
reach. Turning around, an egg is inserted by 
means of the ovipositor. Once more turning 
around, the snout is used to push the egg into 
the egg cavity and to fill it with bits of sur- 
rounding tissue. The next step is to cut the 
characteristic crescent slit at one side of the 
ege cavity, the excavation extending back un- 
der the egg to prevent its being crushed by the 
rapid growth of the fruit. Egg and feeding 
punctures on a newly set plum are shown in 
figure 8, much enlarged. 
Period of oviposition and number of eggs 
laid.— Egg laying begins as soon as the young 
fruit is of sufficient size and may continue for several months, depend- 
ing upon the vitality of the individual beetles. Most of the eggs, how- 
ever, are laid during the first six or eight weeks after egg laying begins. 
Many records of the number of eggs deposited by the curculio in plums, 
peaches, apples, ctc., have been made in different localities. Some 
of these data are shown in Table II. A total of 12,602 eggs is shown 
from the seven localities. 
Fria. 8.—Egg and feeding punctures 
of the curculio on a young plum. 
TaseE I1.—Combined weekly egg-laying records of the plum curculio for various localities 
and the percentage cf eggs deposited within two, four, six, and eight weeks from con- 
finement. 
| Totalnumber ofeggs laid each week by all beetles of the respective localities. 
| Num- ss 
| ber of 
Locality. | beetles | ; co For re- 
|ovipos-| First |Second| Third |Fourth} Fifth | Sixth Ane Eighth} main- 
| iting. | week. | week. | week. | week. | week. | week. wanie week. | derof 
| a period. 
; : 
College Park, Md.... »| 496 760 414 289 192 98 46 23 153 
Youngstown, N.Y..- 8 | 192 186 201 234 204 140 68 37 32 
North East, Pa..... 10)|) 9 28h 183 197 94 54 48 18 66 46 
Washington, D.C... 4 232 213 242 153 128 108 81 21 46 
Myrtle, Ga....... 9 8 62 41 176 50 83 48 40 130 
Siloam Springs, Ark. 29 254 300 343 673 619 545 536 350 1,104 
Douglas, Mich....... 18 | 72 259 329 423 229 89 ey names tase -- 
Total..........| $7 | 1,385 | 1,963°| 1,767 | 2,042) 1,476) 1,111 810 537 1,511 
440 
