APPLE WEEVIL. 83 



By the time the female is ready for the important task 

 of depositing her eggs, the spring has considerably ad- 

 vanced, the apple-buds have burst, and the little bunches 

 of blossom are readily to be distinguished. The weevil 

 soon finds out these ; and selecting a blossom every way 

 to her mind, commences her operations. The beak or 

 trunk, before alluded to, is furnished at its extremity with 

 short teeth, or mandibles : with these she gnaws a very 

 minute hole into the calyx of the future blossom, and con- 

 tinues gnawing until the trunk is plunged in up to her 

 eyes ; the trunk is then withdrawn, and the hole examined 

 with careful scrutiny by the introduction of one of her 

 feelers, or outer prongs of her trident. If it seem to re- 

 quire any alteration, the trunk goes to work again, and 

 again the feelers: at last, being fully satisfied that the 

 work is well accomplished, she turns about, and standing 

 with the extremity of her abdomen over the hole, thrusts 

 into it her long ovipositor, an instrument composed of a set 

 of tubes retractile one within the other, and deposits a sin- 

 gle egg (never more) in the very centre of the future 

 flower. Another examination with her feelers now takes 

 place -, and when she is thoroughly satisfied that all is 

 right, away she flies to perform the same operation again 

 and again, never tiring while she has an egg to lay. 



The bud continues to grow like the other buds ; the lit- 

 tle perforation becomes invisible. By and by the egg 

 bursts, and out comes a little, white maggot, with neither 

 legs nor wings; this maggot, directly it is hatched, begins 

 to devour the young and tender stamens; next to these the 

 style is attacked, and eaten down to the fruit, the upper 

 part of which is quickly consumed : the maggot is then 

 full fed ; it casts its skin, becomes a chrysalis, and lies 



G 2 



