118 QUINCE CULTURE. 



chestnut color, and is entirely concealed tinder tlie 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. 



Remedies. 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, folding their antennae 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. 



