128 INSKCTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE. 



ported from Europe about the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury, it is now found in almost all parts of North America, 

 entailing an immense yearly loss upon apple-growers. 



The early brood of moths appear on the wing about the 

 time of the opening of the apple-blossoms, when the female 

 deposits her tiny yellow eggs singly in the calyx or eye, just 

 as the young apple is forming ; in a few instances they have 

 been observed in the hollow at the stalk 

 FIG. 138. end, and occasionally on the smooth 



surface of the cheek of the apple. In 

 about a week the egg hatches, and the 

 tiny worm at once begins to eat through 

 the apple to the core. Usually its cast- 

 ings are pushed out through the hole 

 by which it has entered, the passage being enlarged from 

 time to time for this purpose. Some of the castings commonly 

 adhere to the apple ; hence, before the worm is full grown, 

 infested fruit may generally be detected by the mass of red- 

 dish-brown exuviae protruding from the eye. Sometimes as 

 the larva approaches maturity it eats a passage through the 

 apple at the side, as shown in the figure, and out of this 

 opening thrusts its castings, and through it the larva, when 

 full grown, escapes. The head and upper portion of the first 

 segment of the young larva are usually black, but as it ap- 

 proaches maturity these change to a brown color. The body 

 is of a flesh-color, or pinkish tint, more highly colored on 

 the back ; it is also sprinkled with minute, elevated points, 

 from each of which there arises a single fine hair. 



In three or four weeks from the time of hatching the early 

 brood of larvae attain full growth, when the occupied apples 

 generally fall prematurely to the ground, sometimes with the 

 worm in them, but more commonly after it has escaped. The 

 larvae, which leave the apples while still on the trees, either 

 crawl down the branches to the trunk of the tree, or let them- 

 selves down to the ground by a fine silken thread, which they 

 spin at will. In either case, whether they crawl up or down, 



