LIFE HISTORY AND HABITS: THE LARVA. 57 
after the apple has grown to three-fourths inch or 1 inch in diam- 
eter the punctures have much less effect, though the fruit may fall 
during the thinning process of the tree itself. The e^ and feeding 
punctures, however, usually result in disfigurement of the fruit, often 
very extensive, as will be discussed under another heading. 
During the 4 or 5 years that the curculio has been under investi- 
gation no observations have been made wherein the larvae have sur- 
vived to maturity in healthy apples on the trees, with the one excep- 
tion, as observed by Mr. Johnson at North East, Pa., on July 16, 
1906, of the occurrence, in a ripening apple on the tree of the Yellow 
Transparent variety, of three nearly full-grown larvae. (See PI. IX, 
fig. 10.) As in this instance, it is possible that when eggs are depos- 
ited in summer varieties as they are beginning to ripen, the resulting 
larvae would mostly be able to survive, since the stage of rapid growth 
of the fruit has passed. On another occasion in this locality Mr. 
Johnson observed, August 1, 1906, in an orchard of the Baldwin 
variety, numerous small and highly colored apples on the trees about 
the size of walnuts, some of winch contained full-grown curculio 
larvae, and other fruits showed their exit holes. Unquestionably in 
this instance the normal development of the fruit had been checked 
from other causes, though it had failed to fall. The condition is not 
essentially different from that when the fruit drops to the ground. 
In interesting contrast to the practically complete death of all 
larvae hatching in apples which remain on the trees, and to a large 
extent of those which do not drop until some days after hatching, is 
the condition found to obtain when eggs are deposited in confine- 
ment in apples removed from the trees. In such cases, as has been 
observed frequently, a large percentage' of the deposited eggs pro- 
duces mature vigorous larvae. Figures obtained by Crandall. involv- 
ing 1,474 eggs deposited in fallen fruit, show that 1,238, or 83.92 per 
cent, of these resulted in mature larvae. 
In the case of pears, although these are oviposited in freely by the 
beetles, larvae appear never able to survive in fruit on the trees, and 
but rarely on fruit on the ground. Unlike the apple, the young pear. 
when it falls, tends to dry up, and on account of the stony tissue 
present becomes very hard. In 50 young fruits of the LeConte and 
Kieffer pear taken from trees at Myrtle, Ga., May 2, and bearing 
numerous egg-punctures, no live larvae were found, none of the punc- 
tures was fresh, and all were more or less outgrown. An examina- 
tion of the e^g cavity showed in most cases, however, borings o( the 
young larvae, and their dead bodies. 
In lots of Kieffer pears containing eggs, collected at Myrtle, Ga., 
April 9 and 20, the eggs were observed to hatch, but larvae failed to 
develop. Pears of this same variety collected from the ground April 
13 and 20 and May 9 gave no results except from one lot, 4 adults 
