THE CODLIXG-MOTH. 225 



Many people have told me that thev did not see one codling- 

 moth: that is, there were so manv perfect apples, the beauty 

 of which took up so much of their attention, that they did 

 not realize there was anv thing else. But the codlingr-moth 

 has appeared this year; and you will find he has had his share 

 of the apples, at least one apiece. It is very seldom indeed 

 that the insect will lay two eggs in one apple, almost never, 

 if there are apples enough to go round; but, where there 

 are not, I have known six eggs to be laid in one apple. The 

 codlincr-moth is a verv obscure insect. It is a thins: that 

 you scarcely ever see. Many people have never seen one. 

 They have no idea what the moth is ; and one reason is, that 

 it is verv small ; another is, that it is a nicrht-flver : and 

 another is its habit of flitting about in such a wav that vou 

 can scarcely get your eyes upon it : but if you store apples 

 in a cellar, and keep them late in the spring, you will find 

 plenty of the moths on your cellar-windows that you can 

 study at your leistire. I must say, that, with all my experi- 

 ence, I have never seen one out of doors in my life. 



One great difficultv in contending with the codlinsr-moth 

 is, that, like the potato-beetle, it has more than one generation 

 in one year ; that is, it has two or three successive broods. 

 The first brood of codlincr-moth worms come to maturitv, and 

 lay another set of eggs ; and I think that the second brood 

 also, in some cases, may lay eggs that come to perfection the 

 same year. I am certain that there are two broods. The 

 first one appears pretty early. I do not know exactly the 

 date at which we find the first larvae, but I think it is about 

 the first of July. The insect lays an egg in the calvx of the 

 apple or pear. The egg hatches, and the worm crawls out, a 

 little sideways, living upon the surface of the apple until it 

 gets to a certain stage of development, and then it goes 

 towards the centre for the core ; then it bores up the core 

 towards the stem ; and the hope of the insect is, apparently, 

 that, in doing all that, it will cause the apple to drop. The 

 habit of the larva is this: when it comes to maturity in 

 the apple, it has three courses open to it ; if the apple remains 

 on the tree, the worm comes out of a hole in the side, 

 and takes one of two courses, — it either spins a web down 

 to the ofround, which is not verv common, but it can be in- 

 duced to do so by a shaking of the tree, either by the wind 



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