142 



Forty-fifth Report on tee State Museum, 



What the Pear Midge Is. 



The perfect insect is a small, grayish-colored, delicate-winged, slender- 

 bodied, long-legged fly, of the general appearance of the minute flies 



which are commonly known 

 as gnats or midges. . With 

 its wings expanded, its 

 spread would be about one- 

 fifth of an inch. It is rep- 

 resented in Figure 6, at a. 

 The larva of the fly, found 

 feeding within the young 

 fruit, when full-grown, 

 about the first of June, is a 

 thick-bodied, pale-yellow, 

 footless " maggot " (as the 

 larva of flies is usually 

 called), somewhat pointed 

 at the ends, and of about 

 one-tenth of au inch in 

 length. Those familiar 

 with the appearance of the 



Fig. 6.— The Pear Midge, Diplosis pyrivora: a, the female, wheat-midge (Dtjllosis tri- 

 side view; b, genitalia of male, from side; c, pupa — ah . • .\ i i 



much enlarged; d, antenna of male; e, antenna of female, UCl ) > commonl y Known, as 

 still more enlarged. the " weevil," would at 



once recognize the resemblance of the two forms, as they belong to 

 the same genus, and are not much unlike. 



Its First Notice in the United States. 



It is believed that this insect is an European species, and that it was 

 introduced in this country in the year 187V, in an importation by 

 Messrs. Coe Brothers, of Meriden, Conn., of pear stocks from France — 

 the pup* 1 being contained in the soil adhering to the roots. Two years 

 after this importation (1879) the deformation of the fruit caused by 

 the insect was noticed in the Coe orchards — at first in the Lawrence 

 peni\ and afterwards extending to other varieties. Each following 

 year showed a marked increase, and in 1883 it had multiplied to such 

 an extent as to destroy nearly the entire crop of the extensive pear 

 orchards of 600 trees. At this time the attention of the Division of 

 Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture was 

 called to the new and unknown pest, and in response the locality was 



