604 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
fruit, its track will still be seen therein, demonstrating that the falling of 
the whole of the fruit, from both kinds of trees, has been occasioned by 
the same cause. 
It is during the early part of July that these worms are leaving the fruit 
and entering the ground. But some are found still quite small, after others 
have got their growth and evacuated the fruit. Hence a considerable time 
elapses, two or three weeks probably, during which one and another of 
these larvae in the fruit are coming to maturity and entering the ground. 
They remain in the ground, reposing, in their pupa state, about three 
weeks. Hence it is during the latter part of July that the most of them 
complete their transformations, and come out again in their perfect state. 
Thus, in from six to eight weeks from the time the egg is deposited, this 
insect gets its growth, and becomes a beetle of the same kind as its parent. 
We thus have these insects completing their transformations and all 
coming abroad again in their perfect state the latter part of July. But 
there is now no young fruit for them to resort to. And the question arises, 
What do they now do, and what becomes of them from this time till young 
fruit again appears the following year ? Where do they secrete themselves 
to pass the winter, and in what stage of their lives are they at that time ? 
Our best authorities at this day, give us as their opinion on this subject, 
that some of the larvae which arc retarded in completing their growth, so 
that they do not leave the fruit and enter the ground till the latter part of 
July or later, remain in the ground in their pupa state through the autumn 
and winter, to produce the beetles which appear the following spring. 
There are so many improbabilities connected with this view of the case, 
that I am surprised that an author so intelligent on these subjects, as was 
the late Dr. Harris, gives countenance to this as his opinion. Let us 
briefly look at this hypothesis. The temperature of the earth through the 
month of August is greater, the ground is then warmer than it is in July. 
There is no probability, therefore, that an insect whose transformation 
under ground is completed in three weeks in July, can remain in the earth 
a longer period in the month of August. Least of all is it to be supposed 
that it can remain there unhatched through all the warm weather of that 
month and autumn. 
Again, we know that nearly the whole generation of these insects that is 
nurtured in the young fruit, reaches maturity and comes abroad the latter 
part of July. Now, is this vast army of these creatures merely an abor¬ 
tion—brought forth only to perish ? Is the existence of this species left 
to the mere accident of a few individuals happening to be retarded beyond 
the usual time in entering the ground, and therefore remaining in it till 
the following spring ? This would be an anomaly, wholly unlike anything 
which we meet with elsewhere in this department of nature’s works. 
Without stopping to notice other views that have been advanced on this 
subject, it may be observed, that the fact that these insects come abroad 
in the spring in full force, some three weeks beforo the young fruit is 
adapted to their use, and that after the young fruit is gone, they are 
