250 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



Conservative estimates place the annual loss 

 to fruit growers, caused by the ravages of the 

 Codlin Moth, at from 20 to 75 per cent, of the 

 apple crop ; the variation being governed by 

 the amount of work carried out yearly in holding 

 the increase of the moth in check. In the fruit- 

 growing States of America the damage caused 

 by this insect is very serious, amounting, for 

 instance, in the State of New York alone, to 

 something like $3,000,000 per annum. 



The Codlin Moth is a pretty little insect, its 

 grey front wings being delicately streaked with 

 copper, and having a dark burnished patch 

 near the hind angle of the wing. The hind 

 wings are of a somewhat lighter greyish-brown 

 colour, with a darker margin. In the spring, 

 just as the apple blossoms begin to fall, the 

 female moth deposits her tiny scale-like eggs 

 upon the skin of the young newly formed fruit, 

 or on the adjacent leaves. In about a week the 

 tiny larva hatches out and usually makes its way 

 into the blossom end of the baby apple, where it 

 remains feeding for several days before eating 

 its way down to the core. Here it lives feeding 

 upon the seeds, and thereby causing the prema- 

 ture fall of the apple. About four weeks after 

 its first entry into the apple, the larva is full- 

 grown, and as a preliminary to quitting the fruit, 

 it gnaws a tunnel from the core to the outside, 

 but closes the opening of this tunnel with a sort 

 of wad composed of silk and apple debris for a 

 few days, while it takes its final feed within. It 

 then emerges by the tunnel, and usually makes 

 its way to the trunk of the tree, where it spins a 



