REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I916 53 



It is well known that this insect displays a marked preference 

 for the early sweet or subacid apples, such as the garden royal, 

 Porter, August sweet, pound sweet, Hubbardston, to mention 

 only a few, while it also occurs, though in much smaller numbers, 

 in standard winter varieties, such as greening, Baldwin and russet. 

 It is probable that almost any variety of cultivated apple would be 

 injured to some extent under favorable conditions, though as stated 

 above, the most serious damage is to the late summer and early fall 

 apples. 



Description of the fly. The parent of the apple maggot is a little 

 smaller than the common house fly and may be most easily distin- 

 guished by its broadly, brown-banded wings and the dark body with 

 the transverse white bands on the abdomen. Very rarely is any 

 similar fly found upon apples during midsummer. 



Occurrence of the flies. The time the parent flies appear is of 

 importance. This may vary from the latter part of June into Sep- 

 tember. Observations were made during the past summer at Nassau, 

 Ghent and Kinderhook. The first adult was found on a red astrachan 

 at Nassau July nth. No others were seen then and there were no 

 signs of the deposition of eggs. July 27th Mr George T. Powell of 

 Ghent reported flies as plentiful on sweet bough apples and on the 

 29th they were rather numerous on red astrachan and early harvest 

 trees at Nassau. Some apples were infested at this time and a few 

 nearly full-grown maggots were found. Two days later only one fly 

 could be discovered on these trees. 



August 8th flies were abundant at Ghent though none were to be 

 found on the nearby Cox orange pippins. The flies were also numer- 

 ous at this time at Kinderhook on both Baldwins and greenings, 

 especially the latter, though none had been seen earlier in the season. 

 August 15th pairing and the deposition of eggs were in progress on 

 the greenings at Kinderhook and the flies appeared to be less numer- 

 ous than they were on the 8th, and on the 24th their numbers had 

 materially lessened. No flies were seen in either Ghent or Kinder- 

 hook orchards after this latter date, though occasional examinations 

 were made till September 12th. 



Poisoning flies. It is well known that fruit flies feed to some 

 extent upon honey dew or sweetened materials, and the results 

 secured with the Mediterranean fruit fly in Africa and cherry fruit 

 flies in this country have led to various attempts to control this 

 pest in the same way. Two infested orchards were put at our dis- 

 posal for work against this pest and the poisoned spray was_ tested. 

 The formula used follows: arsenate of lead, 3 ounces or 5 pounds; 

 cheap molasess, 1 pint or 3 gallons; water, 4 gallons or 100 gallons. 



