286 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OP HORTICULTURE. 



HOW THE INSECT LOOKS. 



Who has not, in bittinof or cutting into an apple, unceremoniously dis- 

 turbed a little, flesh-colored catei'pillar in its home, the familiar worm-eaten 

 interior ? When full-grown, this apple worm is about three-fourths of an 

 inch long, and varies in color from whitish, through flesh color, to some- 

 times quite a distinct pink. Some have thought that this variation in color 

 may be due to the difl'erent varieties of apples infested. The general 

 characteristicts of the worm are shown in the enlarged Fig. 127. It can 

 always be distinguished from the grubs of the plum curculio, which are 

 often found in apples, by the presence of distinct legs, three pairs of true 

 legs and five pairs of false or pro-legs. The head is brown in color, and the 

 first thoracic and anal segments each bear a similarly colored shield. The 

 body bears a few short hairs arising from small, often indistinct, blackish 

 spots. These piliferous spots are often very distinct on the young worms, as 

 is shown in Fig. 132. 



The adult insect or codling motJi — If no mishap occurs, each of these little 

 caterpillars just described develops into the adult insect — a moth. Although 

 such an exceedingly common and important insect pest, there is doubtless 

 not one fruitgrower in ten who has ever seen the parent insect — the moth. 

 It is a beautiful little creature whose front wings, when seen at a little dis- 

 tance, have somewhat the appearance of brown watered silk ; when closely 

 examined, they will be seen to be crossed by numerous gray and brown lines 

 of scales, scalloped something like the plumage of a bird. Near the hind 

 angle of each front wing there is a large dark-brown spot marked with 

 streaks of bronze or gold. The hind wings are of a lighter greyish- 

 brown color, darker toward the outer margin. The pictures of this moth 

 ( all of which are natural size, except two which are twice natural size ) in 

 Fig. 128 give one but a faint idea of the artistic beauty of this pretty crea- 

 ture. An artist who once painted for us a picture of this moth thoroughly 

 appreciated the beautiful coloring with which nature has endowed it. As is 

 shown in the lower group of Fig. 128, the moth varies considerably in size 

 and general coloring; the moth in the center of this part of the figure is 

 represented at rest and shows how nicely the markings on the front wings 

 match when the wings are folded, thus giving the insect quite a different 

 appearance. The peculiar coloring, and especially the habits ( discussed 

 further on ) of these pretty litle moths, largely explain why our fruitgrowers 

 are not familiar with the parents of one of their worst insect foes. 



How the male and female moths may be distinguished — There are at least 

 two characteristics by which the sexes of the adult insect may be quite read- 

 ily distinguished. One of these was discovered by Zeller in 1870, and is 

 shown, much enlarged, in Fig. 129. It consists of a narrow pencil of rather 

 long black hairs situated in a slight furrow on the upper surface of each 

 hind wing of the males only. Sometimes this distinguishing mark is not 

 easily seen, except with a lens. 



We have in our collection at the university over a hundred bred speci- 

 mens of the codling moth, and while sepai-ating the sexes of these by the aid 

 of the character just mentioned, we accidentally discovered that the males 



