578 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



first eats out a small hole with her stout snout, and deposits a 

 small, oval, white egg in the cavity. She then cuts a small seg- 

 ment of the skin and flesh around it so that the growth of the 

 fruit will not crush the egg, the whole operation taking from 

 fifteen to thirty minutes. The life of the female averages about 

 two months, during which time she will lay 100 to 300 eggs and 

 probably makes as many more feeding punctures. The punctures 

 made by the adults of both sexes in feeding are simple round 

 holes like those in which the eggs are laid, but without the crescent 



FIG. 435. Larvae of the plum curculio enlarged five times. (After Stedman.) 



marks. Frequently gum exudes from punctures on the stone 

 fruits. 



The egg hatches in from three to five days and the young 

 larva bores into the fruit until grown, usually feeding around the 

 pit in stone fruits. The larva becomes grown in from twelve to 

 eighteen days (in peaches) according to Quaintance, but in central 

 Illinois in fallen apples it requires from twenty to twenty-six 

 days according to Crandall. When full grown the larva leaves 

 the fruit and enters the soil, where it forms a small cell an inch 

 or two below the surface, in which it transforms to a white pupa. 

 Three or four weeks elapse before the emergence of the adult 



