28 



Bulletin 172. 



^ve cherries in the lower part of figure 13. When this stage is 

 reached, or often even before the fruit shows signs of rotting, the 

 maggots are usually full- 

 grown and soon crawl out 

 of the fruits. One lover of 

 this luscious fruit reports 

 that when some cherries 

 whicli had been left over 

 from a meal the preced- 

 ing day, were placed on 

 the table the next morning 

 for breakfast, it was found 

 that several maggots had 

 crawled out during the 

 night. He is now wonder- 

 ing how many maggots 

 were unwittingly eaten the 

 day before ! 



The work of this cherry 

 mao^erot is well illustrated 

 in the enlarged picture of 



a cherry in section, in figure 14. The maggots feed upon the juicy 

 flesh of the ripening cherry, usually near the pit. They form an 

 irregular, rotten-appearing cavity which is represented by the black 

 cavity near the pit in figure 14. Until the maggots get nearly full- 

 grown their work does not show on the surface of the fruit. Soon 

 after " picking-time," however, the rotting extends to the skin 

 whicli sinks in. Usually but a single maggot is found in a cherry ; 

 we have sometimes found a second, but always much smaller, mag- 

 got in the same fruit. The maggots do not tunnel all through the 

 flesh of the cherry as does the apple maggot in apples. 



We have had no opportunity to ascertain when this cherry mag- 

 got begins its work in the fruit. The maggot which w^orks in 

 cherries in Europe is said to begin work about the time the fruits 

 are turning red, and there are indications that our new American 

 pest begins about the same time. It is doubtful if the maggots feed 

 more than three weeks in the fruit, and most of this must be done 

 in the month of June. The maggots may begin their work in the 



14. — Section of a cherry, enlarged, to sJiow the 

 maggot and the nature of its work. The 

 small figures above shoio the maggot 

 and its supposed parent, the fruit-fly. 

 Natural size. 



