OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 155 



The foregoing account of the insect's habits is founded on re- 

 peated observation ; but we now come to that portion of its career to 

 which I more especially wish to call attention, and which must be 

 considered hypothetical until confirmed by future investigation. Yet 

 I feel as certain of the correctness of my conclusions as though they 

 had been demonstrated. 



For want of sufficient time, I have been unable to catch the moth 

 in the act of oviposition ; but from careful examination, I am satisfied 

 that the eggs are not deposited on the outside of the fruit. They are 

 either thrust into it from the side or from the stigmatic opening, fol- 

 lowing, most probably, the course of the pollen tubes. I strongly in- 

 cline to the latter view, for, though many Lepidoptera are furnished 

 with extensile ovipositors, which enable them to thrust their eggs intO' 

 crevices and other orifices, I know of none which actually puncture. 

 Nor have I been able to discover any trace of punctures leading to 

 eggs. 



Neither have I been able to discover the egg i7i situ ; which is 

 not to be wondered at, however, as when examined in the female ab- 

 domen it is found to be long, narrow, soft and flexible, and of the ex- 

 act color of the flesh of the young fruit. The ovipositor is so very 

 fine and extensile that it may be thrust into the most minute and nar- 

 row passage. 



If, a day or two after the flowers have withered, (between June 15 

 and July 5 in the latitude of St. Louis with the species mentioned), 

 we carefully dissect the young fruit, we shall often find it to contain 

 from one to a half dozen, but more generally two, young larvas. They 

 are always found within the nascent seed, and their bodies are, at this 

 time, so much of a color and consistence with the surrounding pabu- 

 lum, that we could hardly detect them but for the comparatively 

 large, dark jaws. The larva retains its white color till after the last 

 molt, when it acquires the carneous tint so common, at that age, to 

 fruit-boring moth larvas. It is then characterized as follows: 



Description of Larva. — Average lenirth 0.55 inch. Broade.ston thoracic joints,, 

 thence gradually decreasing to extremity, which is quite small. (Fig. 75, a). Color 

 carneous, with a paler greenish tint below. No piliferous spots, but a few very minute- 

 and short stiff hairs springing from the ordinary positions of such spots. A transverse 

 dorsal wrinkle, on each of the principal joints, more or less distinctly divided in two 

 by a medio-dorsal depression, which is sometimes slightly bluish. Joints deeply incised 

 and with a lateral, substigmatal, longitudinal wrinkle. (Fig. 75, d). Thoracic legs 

 stout, but short, with three joints and a claw. No prolegs. Stigmata (9 pair) forming 

 a small rufous circle on anterior portion of joints 1 and 4-11. Head (Fig. 75, e, /, A, iy 

 j, k) partially retractile, copal-colored ; epistoma sharply defined ; labrum slightly 

 pilose ; mandibles stout, rounded, and with four acute teeth, each diminishing in size 

 from without ; maxilke with the inner lobe rounded and furnished with (usually 2) 

 short fleshy hairs, the palpi 4-jointed, the terminal joint with bristles ; labium promi- 

 nent, with the spinneret conspicuous and the palpi 2-jointed— the first joint long, witha 

 fleshy hair at tip, the second small, spherical, and also terminating in a fleshy hair; 



