RA YAGERS OF CROPS 249 



it is impossible to say how far the loss 

 extends." 



The Codlin Moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) is a 

 striking example of an insect which, through the 

 agency of man, has become a cosmopolitan foe. 

 Its original home, like that of its principal food 

 plant, the apple, was probably south-eastern 

 Europe, and from thence it has spread to almost 

 every part of the world where apples are culti- 

 vated, so that to-day this insect foe is to be found 

 causing considerable damage in the fruit orchards 

 of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Tasmania, 

 South Africa, the United States of America, in 

 Great Britain, Ireland, and the Continent. That 

 it is an ancient foe, there seems to be considerable 

 proof, for Cato in his treatise on Agriculture, 

 written nearly two hundred years before the 

 Christian era, is said to mention " wormy apples "; 

 while Pliny, in the first century A.D., wrote : " The 

 fruits themselves, independently of the tree, are 

 very much worm-eaten in some years, the apple, 

 pear, medlar, and pomegranate, for instance." 

 The first published account of the insect itself, 

 however, does not seem to have appeared until 

 1635, when the Dutch author Goedaerdt 

 described it under the name of " Pear-eater," in 

 his curious old book entitled " Metamorphosis 

 Naturalis." Its modern name of Codlin Moth 

 appears to have been first given to the insect by 

 Wilkes, in 1747, who, in connection with his de- 

 scription of the Moth> gives an illustration of a 

 Codlin apple tree ; other names by which it 

 has been known are " Apple-Worm," " Apple 

 and Pear Worm," " Fruit Worm." 



