136 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Only one egg is laid in a place, though on the apple, several 

 punctures may occur on the same fruit. Each beetle lays from 

 fifty to one hundred eggs and deposits from five to ten a day. 

 The time of depositing eggs by early and late beetles probably 

 occupies about two months. The first apples examined, July 

 first, were badly punctured and no new cuts were found after 

 the twentieth of the month. The eggs hatch in a few days and 

 the larva is full grown in from three to five weeks. The 

 infested apples or plums usually drop to the ground before the 

 larva is grown and when mature it leaves the fruit, enters the 

 ground four to six inches, forms an oval cavity, changes to the 

 chrysalis, and in from three to six weeks the perfect insect is 

 formed and makes its way to the surface, completing the life 

 history. There seems to be some reason for believing that a 

 few remain in the ground all winter. The specimens we trans- 

 formed appeared in September, about four weeks from the time 

 the larva was mature. We are inclined to believe that those 

 apples in which the egg hatches and the larva grows, drop early. 

 Abortive cuts shrivel and deface the fruit and check its growth, 

 but it may mature. 



Remedies. 



Spraying with Paris green early in the season and after the 

 blossoms fall is sometimes practiced. On a few trees in the gar- 

 den, the jarring method employed for plum trees may sometimes 

 be used to advantage. There are many insects which devour 

 the curculio larva as it escapes from the fruit. Foremost among 

 these are two or three species of common ground beetles. The 

 larva of the soldier beetle is also a useful destroying agent, often 

 entering the fruit while still on the tree, in search of its prey. 



THE APPLE MAGGOT. Trypeta (Rhagoletis) pomonella, Walsh. 

 This is a native species which originally fed upon thorn 

 plums, and probably wild crab apples, and has transferred its 

 depredations to cultivated apples. It first attracted attention 

 nearly fifty years ago, and as early as 1867 was doing great 

 damage in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. 

 Since that time it has spread and increased until it is now widely* 

 distributed and regarded as one of the worst pests of the apple.. 



