AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 221 



through the skin. Apples marketed with no suspicion of their 

 being infested are frequently found hopelessly involved, honey- 

 combed, and worthless. Apples apparently sound when gathered, 

 may by the presence of eggs or young larvae, afterwards become 

 hopelessly involved. The newly hatched larvae are a little shorter 

 than the egg and could not be readily detected in the white pulp 

 of the apple without a pocket lens. They attain their growth, 

 under favorable circumstances, in four or five weeks, but their 

 development may be arrt sted by cold, insufficient food, hardness 

 of the fruit, &c., for a great length of time. They remain ordi- 

 narily in the fruit but a short time after I hey are mature. They 

 often leave it and go into the pupa state when there is an abun- 

 dance of nourishment and tlie fruit is still occupied by younger 

 larvse of various ages. ]f the fruit is kept cold, though full 

 grown, the larvae remain longer or may even change to the pupa 

 state within it. We have never see the exit holes in hanging fruit 

 and believe the maggots do not drop, but go into the ground from 

 the fallen fruit. Their presence causes the fruit to mature earlier. 

 Fruit picked from the trees may contain larvae and often stored or 

 marketed fruit is alive with maggots. The exit openings are 

 characteristic, irregular holes about 2 mm. (.08 in.) in diameter 

 surrounded by a brownish border. They look as though the mag- 

 gots had gnawed a hole for the head, and then forced the body 

 through, leaving a lacerated border. They may occur anywhere 

 on the apple but are more fn quently found where the brown larvae 

 trails show through the skin. They begin to appear in the early 

 apples about the first of August and may be found until frost in 

 windfalls and in the stored fruit as long as the larvae remain. 



It would seem that the development of the larvae is so nicely 

 timed that they are not mature until the fruit is ripe. Their 

 development is slower in late and hard fruits. A dozen maggots 

 may infest the same apple though a single one is enough to render 

 it worthless. The maggots have been found in numerous varieties, 

 early and late ; sweet, acid and sub-acid, extending from early in 

 July through August, September, October, November, December, 

 January and February. The larvae usually leave the apples and 

 go into the ground an inch or less and soon cLange to the pupae 

 state. The pupae are occasionally found within the fruit in wind' 

 falls and quite frequently in stored fruit. Sometimes the larvae 

 change on the surface of the ground under decaying fruit. On 

 grass ground they probably change in the debris about grass roots. 



