APPLE PESTS 



527 



this aphid give birth to both winged and 

 wingless forms. After the third brood 

 no winged generations appear. All 

 broods after the first are viviparous fe- 

 males, that is. they give birth to living 

 young. Each "stem mother" gives birth 

 to about fifty at the rate of eight to ten 

 pel* day, each new generation coming to 

 maturity in about ten days or less. All 

 this time no males have been present in 

 the colony but some appear in the last 

 brood in the fall and with this genera- 

 tion eggs are produced which preserve 

 the species over winter. 



Control 



For remedies see end of general article 

 on aphids. — Ed. 



Green Fruit Worm or Green Apple Worm 



Xylena sp. 



The green fruit worm is a yellowish 

 green, naked caterpillar, which eats into 

 the sides of the small green apple, the 

 results of which are shown in the cut. 

 It also eats the leaves. When fully grown 

 it is nearly an inch and a half long. 

 Numerous reports from the Bitter Root 

 valley indicate that considerable damage 

 is done by them there. The caterpillars 

 often make only small openings in the 

 skin of the young apples, but instead of 

 healing smoothly these wounds form a 

 rusty or corky area, which has often been 

 mistaken for the true apple scab by per- 

 sons who have not seen the latter. Sim- 

 ilar injury is sometimes done to the pear. 



Other Food Plants 



Besides the apple and the pear a con- 

 siderable number of other plants are fed 

 upon by this insect, including peach, 

 plum, quince, currant, oak, wild cherry, 

 box elder and rose. It is probable that 

 other plants, at present unknown, are in- 

 cluded in the diet of these caterpillars. 

 With this list of food plants, it is appar- 

 ent that we cannot hope to ever approach 

 eradication and that our efforts should 

 be directed merely toward reducing the 

 damage in the orchards. 



Distribution 



The exact identity of the parent of 

 these fruit worms is not known, but it is 



probable that the species concerned is 

 of wide distribution in the United States. 



Life History 



This species belongs to the same fam- 

 ily of moths as the ordinary cut worms 

 and the parent insect is a dull, night- 

 flying moth, which would not attract at- 

 tention if it were to be seen by the fruit 

 grower. The details of its life history are 

 not well known. It is probable the eggs 

 are laid soon after the leaf buds open 

 and the young worms hatching a few days 

 later feed first on the leaves and later 

 on the fruits. They continue their feed- 

 ing through the early part of the season 



Fig. 1. -After Effects of Green Fruit Worm. 

 (OriKinall 



and reach full size about the time the 

 apples are an inch in diameter, when they 

 go into the soil and pupate. In the late 

 summer and early fall the moths issue 

 from the pupae and pass the winter un- 

 der any favorable shelter. In the spring 

 they resume activity and deposit their 

 eggs on the trees as above indicated. 



Control 



Clearly, spraying is the only method 

 by which we may expect to be able to 

 destroy these worms and, from the fact 

 that they feed extensively upon the fo- 

 liage, it would appear to be easy to get 

 satisfactory results. 



