536 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



laying may continue for eighty-one days, during which time a 

 female will lay an average of 257 eggs. The female excavates 

 a small cavity in the berry in which the egg is placed and hatches 

 in four to six days. Infested berries often show a purplish spot 

 around the egg-puncture. The larva bores in the pulp and in 



FIG. 388. Grapes showing egg-punctures of grape curculios. (After Brooks.) 



three or four days reaches the seed, which is then devoured. The 

 larva becomes full grown in twelve to fifteen days, when it eats 

 its way out of the berry and drops to the ground in search of a 

 suitable place to pupate. The mature larva is white, about one- 

 third inch long, tapering from the middle of the body toward 

 either end, without legs, and clothed with fine short hairs. The 



!* 







/ 



FIG. 389. Showing the resemblance of the grape curculios at 2 to excrement 

 of sphinx caterpillars at 1, and mummied grapes at 3. (After Brooks.) 



larvae make small earthen cells under stones, lumps of earth 

 or just below the surface of the soil, and in them transform to 

 pupa?, from which the beetles emerge in eighteen to nineteen days. 

 Thus the complete life cycle from egg to adult requires thirty-five 

 days. The hibernating beetles are still abroad when the new 



