DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 



177 



ning it except for feeding to stock. It is a footless maggot, 

 one-fifth of an inch long, and changes to a pretty two-winged 

 fly. It prefers the thin-skinned summer and fall apples to the 

 winter varieties, but no varieties are exempt from attack. 

 It has spread over the Eastern and Northern States, where it 

 has become a very serious pest, and 

 is sometimes called the "railroad 

 worm." 



The flies begin to appear early 

 in summer and insert their eggs 

 through the skin of the partially 

 grown apples. The fact that the 

 maggots rarely, if ever, leave the 

 fruit while it remains on the tree 

 affords practically the only vul- 

 nerable place in the insect's life. 

 After the apple falls or is picked, 

 the full-grown maggots crawl out 

 and change to the pupal state in 

 the ground, or in the receptacles 

 in which the fruit may be stored. 

 It hibernates in the pupal stage. 



The insect is thus out of the 

 reach of the spraying pump, and 

 the most efficient remedy is to turn 

 sheep or other stock into the or- 

 chard, which will devour the fruit 

 as soon as it falls, or to pick up 

 at once and feed out or bury deeply the fallen fruit in gar- 

 dens. 



The Affile-Worm or Codling-Moth {Carpocapsa pomonella). — 

 This insect has become the most formidable enemy of the 

 apple in the United States. It also does much damage to the 

 pear, and rarely attacks some of the stone-fruits. In many 

 orchards it ruins nearly the whole crop. " Wormy " apples, 

 most of which are caused by this insect, have been mentioned 

 in agricultural writings as far back as the time of Cato, nearly 

 two hundred years before the Christian era. The insect is 

 now a cosmopolitan pest, occurring in nearly every corner of 

 the globe where apples are cultivated. It doubtless appeared 

 12 



Fig. 242. 

 male ; 



-Apple Maggot.— 3, Fe. 

 5, male ; c, maggot. 



(After Harvey.) 



