288 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



The eggs were undoubtedly seen on the fruit by Koebele and Wier ia 

 California in 1889 ( Insect Life, II., 8-4), and by Wight in New Zealand in 

 1891 (Insect Life, III., 394.) But none of these writers tell us how the eggs 

 looked. It is a notable fact that, after ravaging apple orchards for centu- 

 ries, and after undergoing the closest scrutiny by many competent observers, 

 the first picture and accurate description of the egg should not have appeared 

 in the literature until 1893. In 1892 Mr. F. L. Washburn made the first 

 careful observations upon the eggs, and his results were published in 18! 3, 

 in Bulletin 25 from the Oregon Experiment Station. His picture of the egg- 

 is not quite accurate, but we cannot understand why such important obst-r- 

 vatious should have been almost entirely overlooked by later writers. In 

 1895, the eggs were described and poorly figured by Goethe in Germany. 

 He built a cage over a small tree, and. introducing some of the moths, soon 

 got eggs and recorded their development. In 1896 the writer, and in 1897 

 Mr. F. W. Card in Nebraska, recorded further observations, quite at 

 variance with the commonly accepted ideas regarding the egg-laying habit.s 

 of this insect. 



How the eyy looks — Fortunately we were able to get some life-like photo- 

 graphs of the eggs of the codling moth and these are reproduced in Fig. 

 131. The small whitish spots on the apples at a and b, b in the figure repre- 

 sent the eggs' natural size, just as they were laid on the fruit by the moth. 

 At e is shown one of the eggs much magnified, and ('.s and es are pictures of 

 the egg-shell, greatly enlarged. These pictures give a good idea of the 

 shape, size and general appearancs of the egg. Thej have been aptly 

 characterized as resembling a minute drop of milk adhering to the skin of 

 the fruit. 



The egg is a thin, scale-like object, not quite so large as the head of a 

 common pin (it measures from .96 to .99 millimeters by 1.17 to 1.32 milli- 

 meters ), and is of a semi-transparent, whitish color, often with a yellowish 

 tinge, which is sometimes quite pronounced. Unless one has seen the egg» 

 they could not be readily discovered on an apple ; those on the apples at a 

 and b, b in the figure were unnaturally whitened to bring them out in the 

 reproduction. After one has become familiar with the eggs it is a compara- 

 tively easy matter to find them by turning the fruits around ; when the 

 light strikes the egg just right it can be quite readily seen. As the pictures 

 in Fig. 131 show, the whole surface of the shell, when viewed under a 

 microscope, is quite rough and is marked with an irregular network of fine 

 ridges extending from the edge over about one-half of the surface, but not 

 over all of the surface as represented in Washburn's picture. 



Where and ichcn the eyys ((re laid — In the light of recent observations it 

 seems remarkable how the notion that the eggs of this insect are laid on or 

 in the so-called calyx or blossom end of the fruit, has clung to the literature 

 for nearly a century and a half. 



Roesel was apparently the first one to make any definite statement re- 

 garding oviposition. He said in 17-16 : • ' The female places her impregnated 

 eggs singly either below at the stem end or above at the blossom end of the 

 fruit." It 1833 "Rusticus" 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 efi'ectually shields it from any 

 casualtj^" In 1855 Noedlinger 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 



