30 Bulletin 172. 



r] 



Its Distribution and Destructiveness. 



We have evidence of the work of tliis new cherry pest this year 

 from Behnont, Mass., and Ithaca and Geneva, N. Y. The fly which 

 we found on the frnit at Geneva, and which we feel quite sure is the 

 adult insect, is recorded from the Middle States only. It was doubt- 

 less the same insect which worked in Northern Michigan ten years 

 ago, as noted above. Thus cherry growers in the Eastern, Middle 

 and j^orthern States should be on the lookout for the pest. 



At Belmont, Mass., about one-third of a six or seven-ton crop of 

 cherries were ruined by the maggots this year. The pest also 

 destroyed from one-fourth to one-third of the crop of English 

 Morello and Montmorency cherries in one orchard at Geneva, N. Y. 

 These facts show that the new pest will become a serious menace to 

 cherry growing in certain sections. Another serious phase of the 

 matter is the fact that the presence of the pest may not be known 

 until the fruit gets into the hands of the consumers, and such fruit 

 will not help in making future sales to the same parties. 



Its History, Identity and ITame. 

 So far as we can find there are recorded but two earlier instances 

 where maggots have been found in cherries in America."^ For more 

 than a century European cherry growers have suffered from the 

 ravages of a maggot in the fruit. The first record we find of mag- 

 gots in cherries in x\m erica was made by Dr. Hagan, of Cambridge, 

 Mass., in 1883. That year maggots were very common in the fruit 

 of a black cherry tree imported from Prussia and set in his garden 

 ten years before. He found no differences between his maggots and 

 pupge and those of tlie European cherry maggot, but stated that this 

 was not sufficient evidence to prove the specific identity of the two 

 cherry pests. He expected to raise the adult insect and thus settle 

 the identity of our American cherry maggot, but evidently he did 

 not rear the fly, as we are informed that no flies or even any of the 

 maggots are to be found in the collections at Cambridge. It is an 

 interesting fact that we received our first intimation of the existence 



* Although the bibliograph}'- appended to this bulletin includes several refer- 

 ences to cherries being found infested by maggots, it may be noted that the 

 records of Cook, Cordley and Davis all refer to the same case of infestation. 



