54 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



14 — That those which hybernate underground continue to develop 

 and to issue from the earth during the whole month of May. 



15 — That botli males and females puncture the fruit for food, by 

 gouging hemispherical holes, but that the female alone makes the 

 well-known crescent-shaped mark (see Fig, IS, d.) y as a nidus for her 

 era 



16 — That the egg is deposited in the following manner, the whole 

 process requiring about five minutes : Having taken a strong hold on 

 the fruit (see Fig. IS, </), 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 l-16th 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 llap ; her object apparently being to 

 deaden this flap so as to prevent the growing fruit 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. 



17 — That the egg is oval, of a pearl-white color, large enough to 

 be seen with the naked eye, requires a temperature of at least 70°' 

 Fahr. to hatch it, and may be crushed with the finger-nail without in- 

 juring the fruit. 



18 — That the stock of eggs of the female consists of from 50 to 100 ; 

 that she deposits from 5 to 10 a day, her activity varying with the 

 temperature. 



10 — That the last of those curculios which hybernated in the im- 

 perfect state under-ground have not finished depositing till the end 

 of June and beginning of July, or about the time that the new brood 

 developed from the first laid eggs of the season, are beginning to is- 

 sue from the ground; and that we thus have them in the month of 

 June in every conceivable state of existence, from the egg to the 

 perfect insect. 



20— That the period of egg depositing thus extends over more 

 than two months. 



21— That all eggs deposited before the first of July generally 

 develop and produce Curculios the same season, which issue from the 

 ground during July, August and September and hybernate in t he- 

 perfect state. 



22— That most of those which hatch after the first of July, either 

 fail to hatch, or the young larvae die soon after hatching, owing per- 

 haps to the more ripe and juicy state of the fruit, being less congenial 

 to them; and that what few do mature, which hatch after this date. 



