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tombs (fig. 2). In some seasons the larvse are feed- 

 ing the beginning of May, and the beetles have 

 hatched by the 25th. These little animals some- 

 times occasion great loss to the apple-grower, espe- 

 cially in cider countries in backward seasons, when 

 vegetation is retarded by cold and wet, which afford 

 the beetles a much longer period to perform their 

 operations. Like many other insects in their perfect 

 state, they live through the winter, secreting them- 

 selves in the chinks and under the loose bark of trees, 

 beneath stones, clods of earth, &c. In March, when 

 the flower-buds are swelling, the beetles emerge from 

 their retreats, when the males are seen in sunny 

 mornings flying amongst the trees in search of the 

 females, who generally are crawling over the branches, 

 although they are also furnished with wings. They 

 seem to be very earful in selecting proper objects for 

 the reception of their eggs, and on finding a suitable 

 bud, the female bores a hole with her minute jaws, 

 which are placed at the tip of the slender proboscis, 

 until she has reached the parts of fructification, and 

 turning round she lays an egg in the hole by inserting 

 her ovipositor, and then closes it again with her 

 mouth, and seems as if she were forcing in the egg ; 

 this is rather a tedious operation, and is said to occupy 

 three-quarters of an hour ; she then hastens to another 

 swelling flower-bud for the same purpose, and is thus 

 employed two or three weeks, viz., until the flowers 



