248 Forty-fifth Report on the State Museum. 



should be gathered at the proper time and be destroyed with all 

 of the contained larvjie. 



If it shall be found that any considerable proportion of the frnit 

 containing the maggot falls to the ground as a consequence of the 

 attack, then, of course, much benefit will be derived from gathering 

 the fruit as fast as it falls and destroying it, or to give sheep the 

 range of the orchard for feeding upon it. But as I have examined 

 fruit offered for sale in the Albany market, presenting so fair and 

 perfect an appearance as to prove beyond a doubt that it had 

 been picked by hand from the tree, and yet teeming interiorly with 

 nearly mature larvie, it is highly probable that their presence 

 does not cause the falling of the fruit. 



Our study of this comparatively new insect depredator has hardly 

 commenced. Careful observations are needed upon the time and 

 manner of the larv^ leaving the fruit, and, in the earlier varieties 

 of apples, when they enter the ground. In the later and stored 

 varieties, it is important to know where they betake themselves 

 for their pupation during the winter. Until these facts are defi- 

 nitely ascertained, together with others that are necessary to the 

 completion of its life-history, we shall not be able to accom- 

 plish much toward mitigating the evil. We can prevent the attack 

 of the apple-worm by showering the trees soon after the set- 

 ting of the fruit, with Paris green or London purple in water, 

 A\ithout the least possible chance of injuring the fniit through 

 the poisonous application. Put the month of July — when the 

 Trypeta deposits the eggs that produce the apple maggot — would 

 be too late to apply with safety such substance to the fruit, 

 already nearly full-grown and soon to be eaten. 



Terliaps, for the present, the best results may attend our efforts 

 to destroy the insect in its pupal stage. If examination should 

 shoTv us that the pupation ordinarily takes place in the orchard, 

 beneath the infested trees, then we may reach it there. But if 

 the pupation follows the gathering and storing of the fruit, — as 

 seems more probable, — then the discovery of the retreat of the 

 lar^■te should give us the means for destroying them. 



Desiderata in its Life-history. — In my forthcoming report 

 [second in this series] I have indicated several points upon which 

 knowledge is needed toward the completion of the life-history of 



