DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



187 



can readily see the eggs with the naked eye by carefully 

 removing the skin of the fruit behind the crescent cut. The 

 eggs hatch in from three to seven days, and the little white 

 grubs burrow into and feed upon the flesh around the stone 

 for about a month. 



Infested fruits, cherries excepted, usually fall to the ground 

 before the grubs mature. When full grown (Fig. 252), the 



Fig. 254.— a Cart Gurculio-catcher in Operation, 



white, footless grubs leave the fruits, burrow into the soil for 

 three or four inches, where they form a little earthen cell, in 

 which they soon change to white pupas (Fig. 252). In from 

 three to six weeks the pupae transform to the curculios which 

 emerge from the soil in July and August or later, and perhaps 

 feed a little before seeking a place to pass the winter. There 

 is thus but one brood of the insect in a year, although the cur- 

 culios which ■■ sting " or lay their eggs in the young fruits in 

 the spring are developed and emerge from the soil during the 

 latter part of the preceding summer. 



