THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 31 



the Plum-weevil also, it is single-brooded, and winters over in the 

 beetle state, though I was led to believe differently a year ago. With 

 its long thin snout it drills holes into the fruit, much resembling the 

 puncture of a hot needle, the hole being round, with a more or less 

 intense black annulation. and an ash-gray centre. Those holes made 

 for food are about one-tenth of an inch deep and generally scooped 

 out broadly at the bottom in the shape of a gourd. Those which the 

 female makes for her eggs are scooped out still more broadly and the 

 egg at the bottom is often found larger than the puncture at the orifice 

 — thus indicating that it swells from absorption, by a sort of endos- 

 mosis, of nutritive fluid from the surrounding fruit, just as the eggs of 

 many saw-flies and of some other snout-beetles are known to do. 



The egg is fully 0.0-1 of an inch long, nearly oval, not quite three 

 times as long as wide, and of a yellowish color, with one end dark 

 and empty when the embryo larva is well formed. The egg-shell is 

 so very fine that the larva seems to gradually develop from it 

 instead of crawling out of it ; and by taking a matured egg and gently 

 rolling it between the thumb and finger, the young larva presents 

 itself, and at this early age its two little light brown mandibles show 

 distinctly on the head. As soon as this larva hatches it generally 

 goes right to the heart of the fruit and it feeds there around the core, 

 producing much rust-red excrement, and acquiring a tint of the same 

 color. It feeds for nearly a month, and when full grown presents the 

 appearance of Figure 11, b. 



It differs so remarkably from that of 

 the Plum Curculio that the two insects 

 can be distinguished at a glance even in 

 this masked form. It is softer, the chi- 

 tinous covering being thinner and much 

 whiter. It cannot stretch straight and 

 travel fast as can that of the Plum Cur- 

 culio, but curls round with an arched 

 back, joints 4-7 being larger than the preceding. It is more crink- 

 led, each joint being divided into three principal folds much as in the 

 common White Grub. The space between the folds is frequently blu- 

 ish-black, and there is a very distinct, continuous, vascular, dorsal 

 line of a bluish color. It has no bristles like nenuphar except a few 

 weak ones on the first joint, arising from some ventral tubercles 

 which remind one of feet. The head is yellowish-brown with the 

 jaws somewhat darker, and the breathing pores, except that in the fold 

 of the first joint, are not easily seen. 



IT TRANSFORMS IN THE FRUIT. 



The fruit of the wild crab containing this larva never falls, and 

 the fruit of our cultivated apples seldom; and in this respect the 

 effect of its work differs remarkably from that of the Plum Curculio, 



