3 



for several weeks and in the case of tlie hardier individuals may 

 extend over a period of several months. Egg laying is, however, 

 most active during the first four or five weeks after emergence of the 

 beetles in spring. 



During recent years egg-laying records for the season, made in 

 widely separated localities, show that the total number of eggs depos- 

 ited b}' the female varies widely. In Maryland Professor Quain- 

 tance and Mr. K. 1. Smith found that the number deposited in plums 

 by females of longest life varied from 276 to 436. At Washington, 

 D. C, the junior author during the past season obtained records of 

 oviposition in j^lums which showed a range of from 273 to 560. A 

 record of egg deposition in plums Avas also made by the senior author 

 in westefn New York during the same season, and this showed a 

 range of from 76 to 254. Professor Crandall, in Illinois, obtained 

 records for apples showing a range of from 18 to 252 for individuals 

 of longest life. The number of days required for the eggs to hatch 

 varies according to temperature. Records of the past season show 

 that at Washington, D. C, the time varies from about three to five 

 days, whereas in western Xew York it varies from about four to 

 seven days. 



AVhen the larva attains full growth, which requires some twelve 

 to eighteen days, it bores its way out of the fruit and enters the soil. 

 At a depth A'arying from one-half inch to 2 inches, rarely much 

 deeper, it forms an earthen cell in which to pupate. The time 

 required for the pupal stage and the emergence of the normally 

 colored beetle is from three to four weeks. Thus the jieriod of devel- 

 opment from egg to adult is covered in from about five to seven 

 weeks. Differences in weather and soil conditions, hoAvever, cause 

 the time of emergence of the adults to vary greatly. When the soil 

 is very dry, the beetles may remain in the pupal cell for days or even 

 Aveeks after their normal j^c'riod of emergence, Avhereas after a heavy 

 rain they may emerge in mnnbers. Thus a ncAv generation of beetles 

 from eggs deposited early in the season appears some time before all 

 the parent beetles have died. In fact, some of the oA'erAvintering bee- 

 tles have been kept aliA^e until late in C)ctol)er. 



Upon emergence from the soil, beetles of the new generation almost 

 immediately turn their attention to ungathered fruit, if this be pres- 

 ent on the trees. In Georgia peach orchards, as observed by Mr. J. H. 

 Beattie, of this Bureau, the beetles attack the foliage in cases Avhere 

 the fruit has been harvested. Prunes, ])lums, and peaches often suf- 

 fer severely, and the injury is familiar to many orchardists as the 

 circular punctures and pits made at the stem end of the fruits, caus- 

 ing the latter to rot and dro}) off' a few days befoi-e ripening. I'lic 

 work of the new generation of the cui'culio is cons{)icuous on late 

 varieties of apples also, the beetles feeding upon these until the 



lOir. -.-i] 



