APPLE INSECTS 



33 



Fig. 36. — Apple maggot pu- 

 paria (X 7). 



bands and the wings are crossed by four dark confluent bands 

 (Fig. 35). They are sUghtly smaller than the house fly, which 

 they closely resemble in shape (Fig. 37). The female is pro- 

 vided with a sharp ovipositor with 

 which she punctures the skin of the 

 apple, usually on the side, and in- 

 serts her minute, whitish, elongate 

 egg directly into the pulp. The eggs 

 hatch in from two to six days. On 

 hatching the young maggots start 

 their tunnels through the flesh but 

 grow very slowly until the fruit be- 

 gins to ripen or soften from decay 

 (Fig. 38). When this occurs the maggots grow rapidly, and 

 by their winding burrows soon reduce the interior to a brownish, 

 sponge-like mass. It frequently happens that at picking time 



the fruit may show no signs of 

 ....i-Mi^mmr-s^. infestation, only to go down sud- 



denly from maggot attack after 

 having softened in storage or in 

 transit. This is very likely to 

 happen in the case of Fameuse 

 and Mackintosh when grown in 

 infested localities. Sometimes 

 the burrows run for some dis- 

 tance just beneath the skin, 

 showing through as darkened 

 trails, from which tlu^ insect has 

 received, in some localities, the 

 name of railroad worm. When 

 full-grown, the larva escapes 

 through a ragged opening in the skin of the fruit, usually after 

 it has fallen, and then as a rule burrows an inch or so into 

 the soil, where it hibernates in a brownish puparium (Fig. 36), 



.4 



Fig. 37. 



— Ai)ple maggot fly resting 

 on an apple (X 2). 



