155 



APPLE I\IAGGOT 



The brown "railroads,'' or irregular, decaying tracts 

 ■of this maggot, are rather common in New England apples, 

 especially in early sweet varieties. The parent fly, a black- 

 ish 2-winged insect about the size of our common house-fly, 

 is conspicuous on account of its white-banded abdomen and 

 the irregularly black-banded wings held in a peculiar half 

 raised condition. These flies appear in orchards in NeAv 

 York State about July 1st and are more or less common 

 from then until some time in the fall. One of our corres- 

 pondents captured several hundred of these insects in his 

 orchard in early September of last year. The tiny eggs 

 are deposited under the skin of the fruit, and according to 

 the observations of the late Prof. Harvey, hatch in four or 

 five days. The young maggots begin to tunnel, the pulp of 

 the apple. They grow slowly in hard fruit, and develop 

 very rapidly as the apples become soft and ripe. The chan- 

 nels made by the small larvae are almost invisible, but as 

 the maggots increase in size the galleries become larger and 

 perforate the fruit in all directions. They frequently cross 

 and occasionally unite to form irregular, decayed cavities. 

 During the later stages, fruit apparently souud one day may 

 be literally honey-combed by the pests on the next. The 

 ihaggots attain their growth under favorable conditions in 

 four or five Aveeks. though this period may be greatly pro- 

 longed by cool weather, insufficient food and unripe fruit. 

 They rarely desert the apple prior to its dropping to the 

 ground, though they may do so very shortly thereafter if 

 the fruit is ripe and the maggots nearly full grown. They 

 enter the ground, transform to l>rownish puparia, and ap- 

 parently remain in this condition till early July of the fol- 

 loAving year. Numerous maggots are undoubtedly taken 

 into fruit cellars in fall and winter apples, escape from these 

 situations, and winter as though in the gromid. 



This insect breeds in most apples, including the subacid 

 and sour varieties, though it is most abundant in, and de- 

 structive to the earlier sweet fruit. AVild haws appear to 

 be its native food plant. ^The injury to winter apples is not, 

 as a rule, very pronounced, consisting for the most part of 

 irregularities on the surface, and slightly discolored, corky 

 trails in the interior. These defects, though not conspicu- 

 ous, depreciate the value of the fruit materially. This in- 



