346 



Insect Fests. 



If the weatliar is propitious tliey coiiinience to lay their eggs as 



soon as tlie females liave Ijeen fertilised. 



By means of the long egg-tuhe tlie female deposits her ova in the 



blossoms, mainh' on the anthers. 



The act of oviposition lasts, it seems, a varialjle period, for KoUar 



( 9 ) says " the female 

 took seven and a half 

 minutes laying her 

 eggs." Some I have 

 oliserveil took ovev 

 twenty minutes. The 

 uumfier of eggs vailes ; 

 sometimes as marij- as 

 thirty may be laid, at 

 others, only ten or 

 tveh'e. They are laid 

 usually in a group in 

 the blossom, and as 

 several groups may be 

 found it appears that 

 mure than one female 

 may attack a Idossom, 

 Avhicb is evident ^Yhen 

 v"e iind as many as 



100 larva' in one fruitlet. The female appears to actually pierce 



not only the petals but even the calyx with her long ovipositor. 



r>esides laying them in unopened filossoms, I have frequently seen 



them on the opened blossoms, a fact which I 



notified ^liss Cirmerod, and which she le- 



coi'ded (10). The ova are white, lonnish, 



jiointed at one end and semi-transparent. They 



hatch in from four to si.\ days. By the end 



of ten days maggots may lie found on carei'ul 



examination, but they seem to i^row veiv 



sliJMly at lirst. By the first week in dune 



great numbers of the maggots may reach 



maturity and connnence to lea\"e the decav- 



ing fruitlets, the Juajority have left 1)\' the 



second or third week. Some are unalde to 



escape, as the pears do not always crack. 



unless there has been some rain, and thus reuuun on tl;e trees longer. 

 TJie maggots wlioii matui'e are abnul 1 inchlon^; in colour lhe\" 



(NiUiniil 



