STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 4Q() 



THE applp: maggot. 



{Tryj)eta Pomonella Walsh.) 

 Order Dii^eha ; family Tuypetid^. 



"Eating into the pulp of apples and causing them to decay; a white cylindrical 

 maggot, wliioh when full-grown goes into the ground to transform. The adult is a 

 black and white fly, with banded wings." 



[Extmcts from paper by Prof. J. Henry Comstock, of Cornell University, N. Y., in 

 Report of Department of Agriculture for 1882.] 



" There is another enen\y of the apple which, in certain localities, 

 rivals the Codlin-raoth in the extent of tlie injur}' it does. I refer 

 to the insect known as the Apple Maggot, and which is becoming 



quite common in certain parts of New York and New England." 



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" The Apple Maggot is a small white footless larva, measuring 

 from .10 to .27 inch in length. In some instances the body is 

 yellowish-white ; in others it has a greenish tinge. The important 

 peculiarity in the ha1)its of this insect is that it bores tunnels in all 

 directions through the pulp of the fruit; frequentlj' these tunnels 

 enlarge into cavities the size of a pea ; and when several larvae are 

 present in the same apple it is honeycombed so as to be rendered 

 useless. 



It will be seen at once that the injury done by this pest is even 

 more serious than that done by the Codlin-moth. For as the injuiy 

 caused by the latter insect is confined to the neighborhood of the 

 core and to a single, nearly straight, and conspicuous tunnel which 

 the larva makes when leaving the apple, it often happens that the 

 injured parts of an apple may be cutaway and the remainder eaten. 

 But the nature of the injury caused by the Apple Maggot is such 

 that when fruit becomes infested bj- this insect no one cares to 

 attempt to use it. 



The Apple Maggot is a native American insect, which naturally 

 feeds on the different species of hawthorn (Cratcegiis) and upon 

 crab-apples. It is probable that this insect occurs throughout the 

 countr}' wherever hawthorns or crab-apples are found. Mr. Walsh 

 observed it long ago as far west as Illinois, and I have bred the 

 adult insect from a species of Cratiiigus growing on the Agricultural 

 Grounds at Washington. 



