Eighth Beport of the State Entomologist. 245 



worms lay under the leaves lilie a hill of potatoes; they had eaten 

 little holes through the leaves, and some were dead and others 

 dying." The tobacco was then reset and noi further trouble 

 experienced from the cut-worms. 



The Apple-Maggot. 



An insect which has come under notice during the last twenty 

 years as exceedingly destructive in many localities in the New- 

 England States to early apples, even surpassing the common 

 apple- worm of Carjmcapsa po'tnonella^ \& the Trypeta pomonella 

 Walsh, known commonly as the "apple-maggot." 



While the apple-worm, with which we have been so long 

 familiar as the cause of the annoying and injurious worm-holes 

 in our fruit, is the offspring of a small but beautifully marked 

 moth, the apple-maggot, as its name imports^ is the earlier stage of 

 a fly. 



The Fly. — The perfect insect resembles in form the common 

 house-fly, but it is of a smaller size, being only about one-fifth 

 of an inch in expanse. Its wings are white and glossy, and are 

 marked in a pretty pattern with four blackish crossbands, the 

 first of which is near the base, and the other three are connected 

 upon the front margin of the wing and diverge behind. They are 

 thought to represent somewhat the letters |F w"ith the | placed 

 next the base and its lower end uniting with the lower end of 

 the Fi 1^1^ abdomen has its first fom' segments broadly banded 

 with Avhite. 



Life-history. — The parent fly, during the latter part, of July 

 or early in August, deposits a number of its eggs ujKDn or near 

 the calyx end of the apple, selecting often for its purpose fruit 

 that has already been burrowed by the apple-worm. Upon hatch- 

 ing from the eggs the young larv« enter the apple and com- 

 mence to feed upon its pulp, not penetrating to the core, as 

 does the apple-worm. Here they produce, at first, little irregu- 

 la/rly rounded and discolored excavations of about the size of peas. 

 These, when the lar\'ie are numerous, run together until the whole 

 interior becomes a mere pulpy mass of disorganized material, or 

 is entirely honeycombed with burrows in the more solid fniit. 

 Meantime, the apple is entirely fair upon its exterior and gives 



