INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE APPLE AND PEAR 633 



Life History. The flies emerge during July in New England 

 and live for several weeks. The females at once commence 

 depositing their eggs in the early varieties of apples. The eggs 

 are laid just under the skin in a vertical position, on the cheek of 

 the apple. The egg is elliptical, about one-thirtieth inch long, 

 and yellowish in color. A female will lay 300 to 400 eggs, 12 

 or 15 often being placed in a single apple. The eggs hatch in 

 four or five days and the little maggots at once burrow into the 

 pulp. By means of a vertical motion of the head they rasp the 

 pulp with the small, black hook-like mouth parts, and in less than 



FIG. 490. The apple-maggot (Rhagoletis pomonella Walsh): o, adult; 6, 

 larva or maggot; c, funnel of spiracle on head; d, puparium; e, portion 

 of apple showing injury by maggots; a, b, d enlarged; e reduced. 

 (After Quaintance, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



a minute can tunnel their own length. They become full grown 

 in four to six weeks during the summer, but if only partly grown 

 when winter sets in, many of them seem to hibernate until spring. 

 The mature maggot is about one-third inch long, yellowish-white, 

 footless, much like similar maggots, and distinguishable by the 

 microscopic characters of the spiracles of the first and last seg- 

 ments. The mature maggot goes just beneath the surface of the 

 ground, where its skin hardens to a puparium in which the pupa 

 is formed, in which stage the winter is passed. In barrels or 

 storage places the maggots pupate beneath the apples, and 

 occasionally a puparium is found in the burrow of the maggot 



