28 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



locates between the seeds in the pulp and then gnaws holes in 

 the seeds, eating the contents of one after another until often 

 half a dozen are consumed before the larva is grown. It seems 

 to reject the coats and the clear gelatinous envelope that sur- 

 rounds the seeds. The refuse of the seeds eaten turns black 

 and becomes cemented together. A black spot becomes visible 

 through the skin. The location of the larva can be told readily 

 as the currant infested soon begins to show a clouded appear- 

 ance where it is located and finally turns red and a black spot 

 appears. Infested fruits ripen earlier. Often a half grown 

 larva will be found with the head end half buried in a seed. 

 Finally when full fed the larva gnaws to the surface and cuts a 

 circular hole with ragged edges through the epidermis by 

 means of which it emerges. 



The larvae often leave the fruit before it drops, but fully half 

 or more are still in the currants when they fall and remain 

 there a greater or less time. The currants often drop before the 

 maggots are mature. When ready to transform, they leave 

 the currants, enter the ground under the bushes, usually less 

 than an inch, shorten up and assume the pupa stage in which 

 they remain, gradually transforming into the fly, until the fol- 

 lowing spring when they appear, there being but a single brood. 



