Pip Fruits: Apples 79 



Maggot is the larva of the moth known as Carpocapsa pomonella.. It 

 often causes endless damage in Apple orchards all over the world, but 

 seems to be now on the decline in Britain. The moth appears in June 

 and July. In wing expanse it measures about f in.; the fore wings are 

 grey, with darker transverse wavy lines, and a bright metallic spot at the 

 anal corner; the hind wings are uniformly grey. The female lays her eggs 

 on the side of the fruitlets. The ova are small flat bodies with reticulate 

 shell, and are very transparent. They are seen with difficulty. The small 

 larva coming from the egg crawls up the side of the fruit and gets into the 

 eye, where it feeds for a short time, and then it enters the apple, making 

 its way to the core, which it enters, and destroys the pips. It then makes 

 an opening to the outside, and eventually escapes from the damaged fruit. 

 The larva, or so-called maggot, is creamy grey to dusky pink, and reaches 

 about f in. in length. It lias six jointed legs in front, four pairs of prolegs, 

 and an anal pair. It can thus easily be told from the Apple Sawfly larva. 

 When it leaves the apple and falls to the ground it soon reascends the tree, 

 and upon coming to any shelter, such as rough bark, moss or lichen, sacking 

 or string, it at once spins a cocoon, and remains in this as a larva until the 

 spring, when it changes to a brown pupa, from which the moth emerges 

 soon after the blossom has fallen. Now and again the Iarva3 pupate at 

 once, and a second brood of moths appear in August. The Iarva3 of this 

 second brood pass the winter in exactly similar manner. 



PREVENTION AND TREATMENT. Banding trees with manure sacking, 

 so as to catch the ascending maggots, is an excellent plan. The sacking 

 should be placed close to the ground and double folded. These traps 

 should be taken off in the winter and burnt. Spraying with arsenate of 

 lead within ten days after the blossom has fallen will also do good, as 

 it poisons the small larva before it enters the apple by its eating the 

 arsenic lodged in the eye or calyx cup. 



Pith .Moths (Mastoddcna vinolentella and B. hellerella). Small dull- 

 red caterpillars are often found in the centre of the stalk of the trusses of 

 Apple blossom, and even in the leaf spurs. 



These larvae cause the shoots to " flag ", and then gradually turn brown 

 and die. These are Pith Moth larvae, and they often do much harm to bush 

 trees. 



The moths belong to the Tineinae. They have long, thin wings, edged 

 with long fringes. The fore wings are black and rusty brown, and on the 

 inner border some broken white marks. In B. vinolentella the head is 

 black, in B. kellerella it is white. 



The moths appear in July and August; where they lay their eggs we 

 do not know. The young larvae appear to live on the under side of the 

 leaves in the autumn, and then make their way under the skin of the 

 shoots near the base of a bud. In this position they form brown blister- 

 like areas, which have a small opening into them. In spring they work up 

 into the bud, and live there, finally tunnelling the stalk, where they change 

 to an ochraceous and mahogany-coloured pupa in early July. 



