THE CODLIN MOTH 



the bud. She then places an egg inside, and goeg on to put 

 an egg in each of fourteen to forty-nine other buds. This 

 takes a fortnight, and then she dies, probably satisfied that 

 her duty is fully performed. A little footless, cream-white 

 maggot develops in the apple-bud, which latter becomes 

 rusty-coloured and dies away. 



Another pest is the Apple-sucker, which lays her eggs 

 in September on the fine hairs which cover the shoots. As 

 soon as the weather becomes mild and warm, little grubs 

 come out of these eggs ; they are very small, and their bodies 

 are almost flat. These tiny flat grubs, as s(xm as they are 

 born, hurry off to the nearest buds and slip between their 

 scales. They remain sucking the rich juices of the apple 

 blossom until May or June, when they become perfect in- 

 sects, and fly away so fat and well-nourished that they can 

 live until September without feeding. 



But those are by no means the only dangers. It is not 

 till the apple blossom, which has escaped all those perils, 

 opens in the spring time, after its petals have unfolded in the 

 warm air and the young apple is already half formed, that 

 the Codlin Moth begins to attack them. This tiny little 

 moth is then extremely busy. She lays about fifty ^gs, 

 but only one on each young apple. It is put in the one 

 weak spot of the apple, just at the top, in the base of the 

 withered flower. The grub tunnels down to the core and 

 feeds upon the seeds, which are entirely destroyed. When 

 it has grown sufficiently, it drives another tunnel straight 

 outwards to the skin. If the apple is still on the tree, the 

 caterpillar lets itself down on a long silken thread and 

 hurries off to hide in any convenient crack or crevice of the 

 bark, or if the apple is already stored away, it conceals itself 

 in the walls or in the flooring of the loft. The moths come 



295 



