APPLE WEEVIL. 
83 
By the time the female is ready for the important task 
of depositing her eggs, the spring has considerahly ad- 
vanced, the apple-buds have burst, and the little bunches 
of blossom are readily to be distinguished. The weevil 
soon finds out these ; and selecting a blossom every way 
to her mind, commences her operations. The beak or 
trunk, before alluded to, is furnished at its extremity with 
short teeth, or mandibles : with these she gnaws a very 
minute hole into the calyx of the future blossom, and con- 
tinues gnawing until the trunk is plunged in up to her 
eyes ; the trunk is then withdrawn, and the hole examined 
with careful scrutiny by the introduction of one of her 
feelers, or outer prongs of her trident. If it seem to re- 
quire any alteration, the trunk goes to work again, and 
again the feelers : at last, being fully satisfied that the 
work is well accomplished, she turns about, and standing 
with the extremity of her abdomen over the hole, thrusts 
into it her long ovipositor, an instrument composed of a set 
of tubes retractile one within the other, and deposits a sin- 
gle egg (never more) in the very centre of the future 
flower. Another examination with her feelers now takes 
place ; and when she is thoroughly satisfied that all is 
right, away she flies to perform the same operation again 
and again, never tiring while she has an egg to lay. 
The bud continues to grow like the other buds ; the lit- 
tle perforation becomes invisible. By and by the egg- 
bursts, and out comes a little, white maggot, with neither 
legs nor wings ; this maggot, du'ectly it is hatched, begins 
to devour the young and tender stamens; next to these the 
style is attacked, and eaten down to the fruit, the upper 
part of which is quickly consumed : the maggot is then 
full fed ; it casts its skin, becomes a chrysalis, and lies 
G 2 
