342 Tlie Apple -Worm and the Apple- Maggot. 



in which I am writing stand five or six trees of the old-fashioned variety 

 called high-top or summer-sweets. On these trees the crop of apples is 

 annually rendered worthless by this insect, which tunnels the fruit in all 

 directions. Apples which, when taken from the tree, appeared sound, 

 would, in the course of a few weeks, as soon as they became mellow, be 

 found to be alive with these pests, sometimes to the number of six or more 

 in each apple, although not commonly as many as that. I have found, that, 

 in most cases, the fruit had been previously perforated by the larva of the 

 apple-worm moth {Carpocapsa po^nojiella) before becoming inhabited by 

 this insect." 



It is probably of this same apple-maggot that Mr. Calvin Ward of Ver- 

 mont speaks, as "boring his apjDles in all directions, and doing more injury 

 to him than all other insects combined ; having, in 1865, injured his apples 

 to the extent of one-half their value, but in 1866 not having been so bad 

 as in the preceding year." * Having, however, failed to receive any speci- 

 mens from this gentleman, I cannot be certain of the fact ; but that the 

 true, genuine apple-maggot infests IMassachusetts, Connecticut, and New 

 York, I have the best possible evidence in the reception of the insect itself 

 from those three States. 



This apple-maggot fly must be carefully distinguished from another two- 

 winged fly, which has been described by Dr. Fitch as the apple-midge 

 {Molobnis mail), and the larva of which, according to that author, operates 

 upon the pulp of apples much in the same manner as our insect. Instead 

 of being in any wise related to each other, these two species actually belong 

 to different subdivisions of the great order of two-winged flies {Diptera) ; 

 the apple-midge appertaining to the group which has a pupa of the ordinary 

 structure, and the apple-maggot to that which has the so-called " coarctate " 

 pupa. 



I know of no available means to check the depredations of this litde 

 pest but catching and destroying the winged flies that lay the eggs from 

 which there afterwards hatch out the minute maggots that eventually but- 

 row into the pulp of the apple. Luckily for the fruit-grower, the fly itself 

 is marked in so very conspicuous and peculiar a manner, that it can be 

 readily recognized by any one who has seen the figures given above ; and, 



♦ See the "Answer" to Mr. Ward in "The Practical Entomologist," vol. ii. pp. 20, 21. Mr. Ward's 

 larva may possibly be that of Dr. Fitch's apple-midge, which will be subsequently referred to in the text. 



