34 THE APPLE ISIAGGOT, OR RAILROAD WORM 



and have not been before distinguished from the brownish, 

 rusty spots common on apples. Under the glass they appear 

 as circular or oblong openings, surrounded by a brownish border, 

 somewhat shrunken by the shriveling of the tissue beneath. 

 They maybe numerous on the same apple. The eggs hatch in 

 four or five days under favorable conditions and the minute 

 larvae begin at once to work in the pulp of the apple. They 

 have no true opposable jaws, but the head is provided with two 

 black curved hooks, situated above the mouth, with which they 

 rasp the pulp of the fruit rapidly by means of a vertical move- 

 ment of the head. They live upon the juice of particles of 

 apple thus detached, which is sucked into the mouth. The pulp 

 is rejected and turns brown. They can burrow their length in 

 soft fruit in less than a minute. The channels made by the 

 young larvae, while the fruit is still growing, are largely healed, 

 and neither they nor the minute white larvae are liable to be 

 detected by the naked eye or by the casual observer. As the 

 larvae grow, and the fruit matures, the enlarged channels do 

 not heal, but turn brown, and the presence of the maggots is 

 then readily detected. These channels meander through the 

 whole fruit, even the core. They often cross each other, en- 

 large as the larvae grow, and in the last stages of the maggot's 

 work run together, producing large cavities. Finally they 

 involve the whole fruit, rendering it a worthless mass of dis- 

 gusting corruption, held together by the peel." 



In regions where this insect is not veiy abundant, fall apples 

 with thin skins are most likely to be attacked, but when the 

 pest becomes more numerous the injury extends to other 

 varieties. 



The only thorough-going method of checking the increase of 

 the Railroad Worm and preventing injury to the fruit is to gather 

 and destroy the windfalls. The worms are in these, and if left 

 on the ground the maggots leave the apples and burrow into the 

 earth. By picking up the windfalls every day or every other 

 day and feeding to stock or otherwise destroying them, the 

 insects will be killed and the development of the next year's crop 

 of flies prevented. Each maggot thus destroyed this year les- 

 sens by a hundred or more the maggots of next year's brood. 

 The flies are sluggish, and generally remain in the orchard 



