118 QUINCE CULTURE. 
chestnut color, and is entirely concealed under the body, 
which tapers almost to a point at the tail, which in re- 
pose is turned up a little. They have twenty very short 
legs, a pair under each segment, except the fourth and 
the last. They grow for twenty-six days, casting their 
skins five times, and eating them every time till the last. 
After the last moult they show a clean yellow skin, free 
from viscidity. They now show the head and segments 
of the body very plainly, and are about half an inch long. 
In a few hours after this last moult, they leave the tree 
and burrow a few inches in the ground, where they form 
little oblong-oval cavities, lined with a sticky, glossy 
substance. In these cells they pupate; and in sixteen 
days the change is complete from the worm to the fly, 
which bursts the cell and crawls out to seek its mate. 
The flies of the first brood lay eggs for a second in 
July and August, and the second brood go into the 
ground in September and October, where they remain 
till the next spring, when they in turn change to flies. 
Where they are very abundant the foliage is entirely de- 
stroyed, and before the trees can again clothe them- 
selves with leaves, it is too late to perfect fruit buds, and 
barrenness must follow. If they are allowed to continue 
their work year after year, the trees not only become 
barren, but die. 
ftemedies.—We may catch the flies if we see them 
laying their eggs, for they are not very shy. Saunders 
says, if the tree is shaken while they are at work, “they 
fall to the ground, where, folling their antennze under 
their bodies and bending the head forward and under, 
they remain for a time motionless.” 
Powdered hellebore in water, an ounce to two gallons, 
or either of the poisons, white arsenic, London purple, 
or Paris green, a teaspoonful to two gallons of water, or 
air-slacked lime, or ashes, or any dry dust, or slug-shot, 
sprayed or dusted on the leaves, all seem to be effective. 
