112 



THE AMERICAN MTOMOLOGIST. 



V 



APPLE WORMS. 



(Carjwcapsa pomonelJa. Liuii.) 



Almost every one "wlio is in the babit of eating 

 raw apples must have repeatedly noticed the 

 little whitish worm, which is so often found bur- 

 rowing- at the core of the fruit, and filling it with 

 its disgusting excrement. But probably not one 

 fruit-grower out of a hundred has ever seen the 

 little moth which is produced from this worm , and 

 which, in its turn, gives birth to a fresh genera- 

 tion of such worms. In the annexed figure, a 



ill l\M ll bl J\M1 



sho^^ s the buiio^\ings ot thi> ^^oimlikc lirva,- 

 h the point A\lie)C]t effects its entiancc, p the 

 larva itself ot tht intui il size ■when lull ciowu, 

 h the liont pait of its bod\ niagnilicd d the 

 pupa, I the cocoon, aud/and g the peitect moth, 

 which is distinguishable from all other moths by 

 a patch of burnished coppery scales at the tip of 

 its front wings. In English this moth is vari- 

 ously known as the Apple-worm Moth, or the ' 

 Codling-worm Moth, but there is only one scien- 

 tific or Latin name for it. Like most of our 

 worst insect foes, it was originally a denizen of 

 the OldAVorld, having been introduced into this 

 country only about the beginning of the present 

 century. Twenty years ago it was unknown in 

 Illinois ; and it is only within the last eight or 

 ten years that it has penetrated into Iowa. 



The Ai)plo-worm Moth makes its first appear- 

 ance in Xortli Illinois from the last of May to the 

 forepart of June, and a little earlier or later ac- 

 cording to the season and the latitude. Usually, 

 at the time it appears, the young apples are 

 already set, and beginning to be about as large 

 as a hazel-nut. After couijling in the usual 

 manner, the female moth then proceeds to de- 

 posit a single agg in the blossom end (/>) of the 



fruit, flying from fruit to fruit until lier stock of 

 eggs (amounting to probably two or three 

 hundred) is exhausted. Not long after accom- 

 plishing this process she dies of old age and 

 exhaustion. In a verj- few cases the egg is do- 

 posited in the hollow at the stalk end of the 

 fruit, or simply glued on to the smooth surface 

 of its cheek. In a short time afterwards4he egg, 

 110 matter where it is located, hatches out, and 

 the young larva forthwith proceeds to burrow 

 into the flesh of the apple, feeding as he goes, 

 but making his head-quarters in the core. In 

 three or four weeks time it is full grown, and 

 shortly before this the infested apple generally 

 falls to the ground. The larva then crawls out 

 of the fruit through a large hole in the cheek, 

 which it has bored several days beforehand for 

 that express purpose (as shown in the figure), 

 and usually makes for the trunk of the tree, up 

 which it climbs, and spins around itself a silken 

 cocoon of a dirty white color, in any convenient 

 crevice it can find, the crotch of the tree being a 

 favorite spot. Here it transforms into the pupa 

 state; and, towards the latter end of July or the 

 forepart of August, bursts forth in the Moth 

 slate. AYe have noticed that a larva will occa- 

 sionally spin its cocoon on the under surface of 

 some board lying flat on Ihe ground, instead of 

 climbing the tree in the usual manner. 



The whole of the above process is iiow re- 

 peated by this second generation of Moths; but, 

 the apples being now very much larger, not near 

 so many of them fall to the ground through the 

 internal injury inflicted by the insidious little 

 Apple-worms. A large part of them, in fact, 

 hang on the trees till they arc ready to be har- 

 vested, and in many of them the worms may 

 still be found even up to the beginning of the 

 winter. Those larvre that leave the apples be- 

 fore they are harvested dispose of themselves in 

 the same manner as the larv» belonging to the 

 first or spring brood. Those that remain in the 

 apples till they are barreled up almost invariably' 

 make their way out in the course of the autumn, 

 and spin their cocoOns under the hoops of the 

 barrel, or in any suitable cracks they can find in 

 the staves. In a single axjplc-barrel, which we 

 broke up in the spring for this express purpose, 

 we once found about two hundred such cocoons. 

 But wherever this second brood of larvas spins 

 its cocoon — whether on the tree, under some 

 loose board, or under the hoops of a barrels-it 

 always lies in its cocoon, in the larva state, all 

 through the winter without eating anything; and 

 never transforms into the pupa state till the be- 

 ginning or middle of the following May. It is 

 troni this generation of jiupn? that the early brood 



