LIFE HISTORY AND INJURY 



33 



flies lived three weeks in confinement, and will probably live 

 longer in nature. They begin to deposit their eggs in the early 

 fruit by July i, or earlier, and egg laying continues while the 

 flies are on the wing, the earlier races of flies affecting the 

 earlier varieties, and the later races the fall and winter fruit. 

 Each female is capable of laying, at least, between three and 

 four hundred eggs, which are inserted from time to time, one 

 in a place, by means of a sharp ovipositor through the skin of 

 the apple. The eggs being successively developed in the ovary 

 of the female, after the manner of the eggs of the barnyard 

 fowl, the season of egg laying extends over considerable time. 

 The eggs are vertically inserted into the pulp of the apple, with 

 the end opposite the pedicel, which contains tiie head of the 

 maggot, pointing toward the core. The eggs are deposited in 

 all parts of the apple, usually upon the cheeks, sparingly near 

 the calyx and stem ends, and more abundantly upon the pale or 

 shaded side of the fruit. The time required to deposit the egg 

 is about one-half minute. By means of the sharp ovipositor a 

 characteristic puncture, 33 m m. (-0133 in.) diameter, is made 

 through the skin of the apple. These punctures can be detected 



Fig. 3. — Section of apple injured by Apple Maggot or Railroad Worm. 



by careful observations with the naked e3'e, but a pocket lens 

 is necessary to see them well. They appear as brownish speck?, 



