596 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



The Cherry Fruit-fly f 



The cherry fruit-fly is a native insect whose maggot lives in 

 the flesh of the cherries, causing them to rot. It is very nearly 

 related to the apple maggot (p. 559) which it very closely resembles 

 in both appearance and life history. Injury by it has been 

 recorded in Massachusetts, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, 

 District of Columbia, Michigan and Iowa, so that it is probably 

 generally distributed over the northeastern States. Although 

 its native food-plant is unknown it is probable that it lives on some 

 wild sour cherry. As cherries. are always more or less injured 



FIG. 523. The cherry fruit-fly (Rhagoletis cingulata Loew.): a, fly; 6, maggot; 

 c, anterior spiracles of same; d, puparium; e, posterior spiracular plates 

 of pupa all enlarged. (After Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



by the plum curculio, it is quite probable that injury by this 

 maggot may have been attributed to the curculio and its 

 identity passed unnoticed. Sour and subacid varieties, such as the 

 Morello and Montmorency, are worst injured, but black cherries 

 and indeed all varieties are more or less damaged. 



The fly is slightly smaller than that of the apple-maggot, being 

 about one-sixth inch long with a wing expanse of three-eighths 

 inch. The body is blackish, the head and legs are pale yellowish- 

 brown, the sides of the thorax are marked with a longitudinal 



t Rhagoletis cingulata Loew. Family Trypetidce. See M. V. Slingerland, 

 Bulletin 172, Cornell Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta.; F. H. Chittenden, Bulletin 44, 

 Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Dept. Agr., p. 70, and J. F. Illingworth, Bulletin 

 325, Cornell Agr. Expt. Station. 



