252 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I915. 



(save for the one cannery already referred to in Hancock 

 County), for the fruit is used only locally while fresh. As on 

 the barrens the low bush blueberries and more especially V. 

 peniisylvanicuni and V. canadense are the ones most generally 

 gathered. Two species of high bush blueberries, V. corymbosum 

 L. and V. atrococcmn (Gray) Heller occur in the state, usually 

 in moister localities, but they are little used in any section of the 

 state with which I am familiar. 



Besides the low and high bush blueberries several other 

 species of Vaccinium occur in the state. These are the bil- 

 berries V. caespitosum Michx. and V. uliginosum L,. and the 

 cranberries, V. Vitis-Idaea h. var. minus Lodd, V. Oxycoccus 

 L. and V. macrocarpon Ait. 



Insects Attacking the Fruit Directly. 

 The Apple Maggot Rhagoletis ronwnella Walsh. 



Distribution. j\Iost important of the insects affecting the 

 blueberry and the one around which the chief economic interest 

 centers is the ordinary apple maggot or railroad worm, Rhago- 

 letis pomonella Walsh (Diptera, Trypetidae). In Maine this 

 fly in so far as the blueberry is concerned apparently is restricted 

 to the barrens of Washington County although as an apple pest 

 this species is widespread and troublesome throughout the state. 

 Mid-July is the time during which the adults begin to appear on 

 the plains. Eggs deposited in the berries during August hatch 

 into white maggots which become full grown in about two 

 wxeks and enter the soil to pupate, spending the winter as 

 puparia and emerging as adult flies in the course of the succee'i- 

 ing summer. 



Seasonal history and life history in the blueberry. The adult. 

 Rhagoletis pomonella in the adult form is a beautiful little black 

 fly with banded wings. Although the total number of individ- 

 uals on the whole extent of the barrens must be very large they 

 are nowhere very abundant and the writer has never captured 

 more than 22 in any one day even when he has spent 8 or 9 

 continuous hours on the plains, while usually one sees but 12 

 or 15 or even fewer. 



