THE PLUM CURCULIO A FOE TO APPLES. l8l 



the fruit, and waxing strong and fat preparatory to the time when, 

 the apple fallen, he or she, as the case may be, will enter the ground 

 to pass through a resting stage, or pupal stage, of two or three 

 weeks, before turning into the imago, or perfect insect. This takes 

 place before fall, generally in August, but the beetle does not mate 

 upon emergence from the pupal stage. Its first instinct is to eat, 

 and after lunching upon fruit for a while, by puncturing the apples, 

 it winters under rubbish and leaves, deferring its courtship until 

 the following spring. The first warm days of spring, after the 

 fruit is formed, finds the lady curculio laying her eggs. Although 

 the insect is single brooded, she continues egg laying for some 



Minnesota apples destroyed by the plum curculio. Original. 



little time, probably through the latter part of May and June, and 

 possibly later, as though she were conscious that she had to do all 

 she could before dying, in the late summer or autumn. Now in- 

 sects must eat, as we all know tO' our cost, and while she is egg 

 laying she, as well as the male, feeds upon tender leaf buds and 

 leaves, and upon the fruit also. Before the fruit is large enough to 

 tempt her to lay, in fact before it has formed and probably before 

 she has mated, she varies her diet of leaf buds by consuming the 

 petals of flowers as well. For obvious reasons we cannot spray 

 when the tree is in bloom. This eating of leaf and leaf buds is a 

 significant fact and a habit on the part of the insect which should 

 be taken advantage of by fruit raisers. 



The method of egg laying by the plum curculio. shared to a cer- 



