22 REPORT ON INJURIOUS INSECTS FOR 1904. 



of opinion exists as to how the females reach the buds, some 

 holding that they seldom use their wings and so must crawl up 

 the stem and branches of the tree, while others state that they 

 fly from branch to branch. However, on reaching the tree, 

 and after being fertilised by the male, the female deposits her 

 eggs in the unopened blossom buds. By means of her long snout 

 like rostrum a hole is made into which an egg is deposited, this 

 is pushed down into the centre of the bud by the rostrum, and 

 the opening closed with a secretion. This is again and again 

 repeated in separate flower buds, until anything between twenty 

 and fifty eggs have been deposited. 



In six or eight days the eggs hatch out into minute, whitish, 

 legless, maggots, with blackish-brown heads, later they become 

 creamy-white, with the skin very wrinkled and hairy (Fig, VII, 



FIG. VII. THE APPLE BLOSSOM WEEVIL (Anthonomus pomonun). 



a and b. Beetle, natural size and much magnified, c and d. Larva, natural size 

 and much magnified, e and /. Pupa, natural size and much magnified. 

 g. Larva in blossom bud. 



c and d). Throughout the larval period they lie in the bud in 

 a curved position. Gradually the blossom bud withers and 

 dies. When full-fed, viz., in from one to three weeks, the time 

 depending very largely upon the weather, the larvae cast their 

 skins and change into pupae (Fig. VII, e and f). 



The pupa, which is nearly a quarter of an inch long, is a pale 

 yellowish-brown in colour. The pupal stage occupies from a 

 week to ten days, the beetle then boring its way through the bud 

 lives upon the tree until late in September, when it hybernates 

 beneath the bark or under stones, rubbish, etc., around the tree. 



