67 



the crop of a tree will quickly drop in this way. Upon exami- 

 nation the freshly fallen fruit will usually be found to be 

 deformed and much distorted, and often will be disfigured with 

 black patches of decayed tissue which may or may not havet 

 broken into cracks. Upon cutting open such an attacked 

 fruitlet, a blackened mass of pulp and excreta with a number 

 of the small whitish-yellow maggots (see Figs. 1 and 2) will 

 be found. Later the dead fruitlets become quite black, 

 shrivelled, and more or less hollow inside : even if the maggots 

 are absent these signs will show at once the presence of the 

 pest. It has been noted that an attacked fruitlet always grows 

 much more rapidly than a sound one and becomes deformed, 

 sometimes rounded, at other times bulged out at the side or 

 otherwise distorted. Consequently an attack may be noted 

 soon after the fruit has set. An internal examination should 

 always be made, as pears may become deformed from other 

 causes. 



Description and Life-History. The adult midge appears 

 in April, about the time the blossoms on early pears commence 

 to show signs of the white petals usually about the middle 

 of April. It is, however, seldom noticed, being barely one- 

 tenth of an inch long and lives but a short time. Its general 

 appearance may be gathered from Fig. 4. The male is 

 blackish-grey to black in colour, clothed with pale yellowish 

 or white hairs and has long antennae. The female is dusky- 

 grey always paler in colour than the male, and its antennas 

 are shorter. It has a long ovipositor (when fully extended, 

 as long as or longer than the body) for the purpose of de- 

 positing eggs inside the pear blossom. 



The eggs are laid by the female in batches of from ten to 

 thirty within the flowers, the unopened buds being pierced 

 by the ovipositor for this purpose. They are white, rather 

 long, pointed at one end and semi-transparent, and they hatch 

 in from four to six days. 



The larvae maggots are footless, yellowish -white in colour 

 (Fig. 3). They make their way into the developing fruit 

 and in about five to six weeks are full grown and ready to 

 leave. By this time the decay in the interior of the fruitlet 

 caused by the presence of the maggots has usually reached 

 the outside at one or more spots, and on these spots the skin 

 soon cracks, allowing the maggots within to escape. Upon 

 reaching the soil the maggots burrow therein to a depth of 

 l|-2^ inches and spin a delicate silken cocoon about one-tenth 

 of an inch long, in which they remain for some considerable 

 time (in some cases apparently until the following spring) 

 before pupation. Should a young fruitlet remain intact ex- 

 iernally, the maggots are imprisoned, but sooner or later it 

 falls to the ground and subsequently decays, when the maggots 

 are able to escape and burrow into the ground. When mature 



