T02 Bulletin 142. 



IVhere and when the eggs are laid. — In the light of recent observa- 

 tions, it seems remarkable how the notion, that the eggs of this insect 

 are laid on or /// the so-called calyx or blossom-end of the fruit, has 

 clung to the literature for nearly a century and ^ half. 



Roesel was apparently the first one to make any definite statement 

 regarding oviposition. He said in 1746: " The female places her impreg- 

 nated eggs singly either below at the stem-end or above at the blossom- 

 end of the fruit." In 1833, " Ruslicus " wrote that the moth lays its eggs 

 " in the eyes, one only in each, by introducing its long ovipositor between 

 the leaves of the calyx, which form a tent above it that effectually shields 

 it from any casualty." In 1855, Nordlinger wrote that "according to 

 some, the moth deposits its eggs upon the fruit itself, according to others, 

 usually upon the calyx or between the calyx lobes or in the stem cavity. 

 Undoubtedly all of these views are correct." The fact that the worms 

 do often enter at the blossom-end, and sometimes near the stem or even on 

 the side of the fruit, was apparently the only foundation for the common 

 notion that the eggs must have been laid at these points. 



However in 1889 and 1891, observers in California and New Zealand 

 noticed that the eggs were laid almost anywhere else on the fruit than in or 

 on the calyx ; some were even seen on the stems of pears. In 1892, Wash- 

 burn found the eggs "placed on both the sides and the top of the fruit." 

 In the spring of 1896, we saw th2 ^2^^ of the codling-moth for the first 

 time ; a moth had been induced to lay it on an apple in one of our cages. 

 A little later we had no trouble in finding many eggs \\\ orchards. In con- 

 finement, we found that the moths laid their eggs almost anywhere it 

 happened, on the sides of the cage, on the leaves or bark of branches 

 placed in the cage, and sometimes several eggs were laid in a cluster, over- 

 lapping each other ; Goethe had a similar experience in Germany in 1895. 



During the past two years we have seen hundreds of the eggs on 

 apples in New York orchards and have never yet seen one on or douui 

 in between the calyx lobes on the so-called blos5om-end. We have 

 seen eggs near the calyx, in old curculio scars, near the stem, and 

 have found what appeared to b^r codling-moth eggs even on the leaves 

 of the tree. Most of the eggs we found were glued to the skin appar- 

 ently without much choice as to location, on the smooth surface of the 

 fruit, as shown at a and /», b \\\ figure 131. 



During the past year Mr. Card has found the eggs in Nebraska. 

 He states that '* instead of being laid in the calyx, we find that the 

 eggs are laid almost exclusively on the up[)er surface of the leaves, in 



