THE LEPIDOPTERA 



239 



The adult moth (Fig. 234) has its fore-wings brown, crossed by irreg- 

 ular gray and brown lines. It spreads about three-quarters of an inch 

 and is not often seen as it flies only at night and is not attracted by lights. 



Winter is passed in the full-grown caterpillar stage in some protected 

 place, usually under a piece of bark of the tree where the insect fed (Fig. 

 235). Under the bark the caterpillar digs out 

 an oval cavity and lines it with silk in which to 

 winter. In the spring it pupates here and the 

 adult moth escapes a week or two after the 

 petals fall at the blossoming season in the 



//•^K ^ 



Fig. 234. Fig. 235. 



Fig. 234. — Adult Codling Moth {Laspeyresia pomonclla L.), twice natural size. 

 (Original.) 



Fig. 235. — Piece of bark .showing Codling Moth cocoons and pupse on its under 

 surface. About one-third less than natural size. (Modified from Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. 

 Bull. 142.) 



spring. Tiny, white, flattened eggs, 50 to 75 in number, are now laid 

 singly on leaves, twigs or on the small fruit, but mainly on the leaves. 

 The eggs hatch in about a week and the little caterpillars feed for a short 

 time on the foliage, but soon leave this and crawl to the fruit, where from 

 60 to 80 per cent enter at the blossom end, often burrowing their way 

 through between the closed calyx lobes or sepals to reach the cup-shaped 

 cavity within. From the bottom of this cavity they tunnel into the fruit 

 to the core, in and around which they 

 feed until full-grown; a period of 

 nearly a month in most cases. The 

 other 20 to 40 per cent enter the fruit 

 at any point, but appear to prefer a 

 place where a leaf or some other 

 object lies against the fruit. 



When its growth has been com- 

 pleted the caterpillar (Fig. 236) is 

 about three-quarters of an inch long, 



pinkish or whitish, with its head and a patch above, just behind the head, 

 and another at the hinder end of the body, brown. It now leaves the 

 fruit, generally burrowing out through the side and makes its way down 

 the tree until it finds som€ piece of bark loose enough to permit it to 

 gnaw its way under, and here it forms an oval cavity as already 

 described. 



Fig. 236. — Full-grown larva of Codling 

 Moth, about twice natural size. (Modi- 

 fied from Cornell Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 142.) 



