192 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1917. 



gooseberries for half an hour or more and then failed to break 

 the cuticle. Such specimens were occasionally seen to move 

 the end of the ovipositor against the side of the glass jar. 



When a fine needle is used to puncture the epidermis at the 

 region where the fruit fly is rasping the peel, the ovipositor is 

 forced immediately into the hole, a receptacle is formed and an 

 egg deposited. If the needle is thrust into the pulp, the female 

 may push its ovipositor into the hole, but often does not lay an 

 egg. 



Egg Chamber. 



It is not difficult to locate the egg cavity containing the egg 

 immediately after oviposition has taken place. Two days- after 

 the egg is deposited in a gooseberry, faint indications of brown 

 discoloration appear around the semi-circular mouth of the recep- 

 tacle. Later the peel over the entire egg chamber becomes 

 brown and very conspicuous. Finally, in some cases after the 

 egg hatches, the epidermis may turn black (Figs. 14, A. 15, C). 



An examination of gooseberries "itung" by the pest but 

 which failed to drop, showed that if an egg did not hatch, or 

 the young larva died, then the brown or black epidermis of the 

 egg cavity usually cracked around all or a part of the margin 

 of the egg chamber or around the shriveled egg. Sometimes 

 the peel ruptured through the center of the egg puncture but in 

 some gooseberries the epidermis remained intact. A corky 

 growth may develop in the pulp beneath the receptacle. 



Number of eggs in egg chamber. — As a general rule, one 

 egg is deposited in an egg chamber. On a number of occasions 

 two eggs were found in one receptacle in gooseberries. An egg 

 cavity is sometimes formed and yet no egg may be laid within 

 the same. 



Number of egg chambers in fruit. — The number of egg 

 chambers in a single berry may vary in the different fruits and 

 probably depends upon the abundance of flies. In white, red 

 and mountain currants the usual number of eggs deposited in 

 a single berry is one, but in some cases two were found. In 

 Chautauqua gooseberries from one to six egg punctures were 

 counted, the average being three (Fig. 14, C.) Without excep- 

 tion every berry on two Chautauqua gooseberry bushes was stung 

 by the pest. An inquiry was made concerning previous condi- 



