Page 20 



BETTER FRUIT 



February 



r 



Figure 1— CURCULIO, ADULT AND EARLY STAGES; PLUMS SHOWING CHARACTERISTIC 

 MARKINGS, WITH GUM EXUDATION. (After Lugger) 



above. A number of over-wintering 

 beetles were caught by the writer April 

 20 and confined in cages with food. One 

 pair remained living up to August 1, a 

 period of 103 days from capture, bring- 

 ing about an overlapping of spring and 

 fall beetles. A single female beetle under 

 observation by the writer deposited 155 

 eggs extending over a period of 101 days. 

 Neither of these records are especially 

 exceptional. The last of August in south 

 Missouri and the last of September in 

 the northern part of the state will find 

 practically all of the beetles dead and 

 the new ones in hibernation. The last 

 beetle jarred from apple at Olden in 

 1908 was on August 14, when a single 

 specimen was found. This was nearly 

 two months before the late apples were 

 picked. 



Figure 3— APPLES GNARLED FROM EFFECTS 



CURCULIO PUNCTURES 

 (After Washburn, Bulletin 112, Minnesota Agricultural 

 Experiment Station) 



The injury to the surface of apples 

 from this insect may result from the 

 feeding punctures made by either sex or 

 by the crescent punctures of the female. 

 These blemishes in the skin damage the 

 appearance of the fruit and reduce their 

 quality and market value. The feeding 

 punctures greatly outnumber the egg 

 crescents. A certain percentage of the 

 miniature apples are made to drop very 

 early from the effect of these "stings," 

 especially those in which the eggs hatch. 



The plum curculio does not multiply 

 readily in apples, and only a small per- 

 centage of the eggs deposited ever hatch. 

 No larva develops to maturity in an 

 apple which remains upon the tree. The 

 larva boring its tortuous channel through 

 the tissue brings the apple prematurely 

 to the ground. If the egg hatches and 



the larva perishes after boring a 



short distance into the apple the 

 fruit may remain upon the tree, 

 but becomes badly gnarled and 

 misshapen. In these cases the 

 crescents and the openings into 

 the larva burrows appear at the 

 bases of deep depressions and the 

 tissue along the burrows is 

 changed to a greenish color 

 and made tough and wood}'. 



Feeding punctures made 

 early in the growth of the 

 apples sometimes appear 

 later only as "specks" upon 

 the surface and are not so 

 objectionable as those made 

 later. The early feeding 

 punctures of the curculio 

 are generally very hard to 

 distinguish from the specks 

 made by the codling moth 

 larva, neither of which in- 

 jure the keeping quality of 

 the apple, nor do tlicj' de- 

 tract in any great degree 



from its appearance. One of the greatest 

 losses to orchardists, due to curculio, is 

 from the rots and fungus diseases which 

 gain an entrance into the apple through 

 open punctures made by these insects. 



One may appreciate the capacity of the 

 curculio for doing evil when the number 

 of punctures capable of being made by a 

 single pair of beetles is considered. A 

 single male and female kept in a cage 

 for over three months and supplied with 

 fresh fruit made a total of 721 separate 

 egg or food punctures. Had they been 

 distributed singly in the apples in the 

 orchard 4.8 bushels of apples, estimating 

 150 per bushel, could have received punc- 

 tures from this single pair. 



Orchardists who have seen apples cov- 

 ered with scores of such curculio food 

 and egg punctures as shown in Fig. 2, 

 or perhaps gnarled and knotted as shown 

 in Fig. 3, or who have seen a majority 

 of their apples fall to the ground as 

 windfalls and the balance upon the trees 

 gnarled and stung so badly by this insect 

 as to render them completely unmarket- 

 able, need no further recital of the impor- 

 tance of this pest, and the present need 

 of spraying and other control measures. 



Briefly stated, the life history of the 

 codling moth is as follows: The insect 

 passes the winter as a worm within a 

 tough silken cocoon, under rough bits 

 of bark, under boards or piles of rubbish, 

 in barrel or box material in fruit packing 

 houses, or hidden away in various nooks 

 and crevices about the trees. In the 

 spring, as the warmer days come, these 

 worms change to a brown pupae or 

 chrysalids within the cocoons. Those 

 upon the sunny side of the tree trunks 

 or in the warmer locations are the first 

 to transform. In a short time these 

 pupae yield the moths, which, after mat- 

 ing, begin to deposit their eggs upon the 

 trees — the eggs during the early egg- 

 laying period being placed upon the 

 upper or smooth surface of the apple 

 leaves, but invariably upon those leaves 

 which are borne close to fruit. Fruit 

 growers are only too familiar with the 

 appearance of the larva as it passes the 

 winter or as it is found within the wormy 

 apple. Most fruit growers are also able 

 to recognize the pupae and the moths. 

 These are shown in Figs. 4 and 6 and a 

 wormy apple in Fig. 5. Orchardists are, 

 however, less familiar with the eggs, 

 though every fruit grower should be able 

 to discover and know them when they 



OF 



Figure 4— ADULT CODLING MOTHS, NATUR-\L SIZI 

 (From Slingerland, New York (Cornell) Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Bulletin 142) 



