48 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



As there are a large number of groAvers who may never 

 have seen the CocUin Moth in its perfect state, a hrief 

 description of it and its hut too well-knoAvn larvse may he 

 usefuL 



The hirva, or grub, of the Codhn Moth is of a yellowish- 

 white colour, with a dark-hrown, almost black, head. When 

 full grown it is little more than half-an-inch in length. 

 When young, the larva is very small, and its form barely 

 perceptible to the naked eye without the aid of an ordinary 

 lens. After the egg is deposited, which operiation is per- 

 formed by the female moth inserting its ovipositor into 

 the young apple between the divisions of the calyx (see 

 Plate II., Fig. 1"), the small grubs are hatched within a 

 few days, when these little creatures commence to eat into 

 the centre of the fruit, and finally attack the pips or seeds 

 (see Plate II., Fig. 1), which causes the fruit to pre- 

 maturely fall to the ground. 



In a short time, a little over a month or so, the grub 

 iiaving eaten enough, slightly changes its colour, and 

 assumes a pinkish hue, and after spinning a fine silken 

 thread, descends by means of this (see Plate 11. , Fig. 3) 

 to the ground, and hides itself in the loose bark or crevices 

 in the trees; and Mathew Cooke tells us that in one case, 

 where four hundred apple trees were dug up, the larvae 

 w^ere found in great numbers in the roots of such trees as 

 were decayed at or above tlie surface of the ground. 



In such positions do the grubs hide themselves, and 

 hj^bernate for the winter, and an enormous number of 

 these larvae may often be found huddled together in the 

 folds of one small bandage, and whilst thus hybernating, 

 it would appear that no reasonable amount of either cold 

 or wet has any injurious efi'ect upon them. 



The presence of the grul) in the apple is easily detected 

 by the excreta which the grub has pushed from the hole 

 by which it entered the fruit. 



The tenacity of life exhibited by the grub of this motli 

 is very striking, the writer having kept a grub, which had 

 been dipped in a certain solution, supposed to be strong 

 enough to destroy the Codlin Moth wholesale, for nearly 



