452 PUNCTURE OF THE FRUIT BY THE SAW-FLY. 



never becomes very highly colored, and yet is 

 scarcely edible unless it has some little shade of 

 brown or red upon its cheek, when it becomes aro- 

 matic and delicious. 



While this disease sometimes attacks the apple, 

 yet it is more frequently noticed in the pear. 



3. Insects. (1) The puncture of the fruit hy the Apple 

 Smv-fly — Tentredo testudinea. This insect makes its 

 appearance during the last of June and first of July, 

 when the apple is one-quarter or one-third grown, 

 and causes the fruit to drop to the ground. If the 

 apple is immediately examined, it will be found to 

 contain the larva, or worm, which very soon escapes 

 to the ground. The fly deposits its egg as early as 

 the period of florescence. Its wings are light brown; 

 its legs and body orange, with the exception of the 

 upper surface, which is a glossy black. Its length 

 is about five-eighths of an inch. The caterpillar, 

 which appears as a borer, is of a pale orange color, 

 having twenty legs, three pairs of them being tho- 

 racic, six pairs of them short ventral, and one pair at 

 the extremity. The larvae increase in size with the 

 growth of the apple, eating the heart of the fruit, 

 which at last causes it to drop. The only remedy 

 for this serious malady is to pick up immediately 

 the fruit which has fallen, and destroy the larvae 

 before they have escaped, either by boiling them, 

 or feeding them to some other animals. Some per- 



