264 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
belongs to the Order of Two-winged Flies 
(Diptera). The Codling-moth, on the other 
hand, has four scaly wings (appearing powdery 
with the unaided eye), and belongs to the Order 
of Scaly-winged Flies ( Lepidoptera ). The former 
is single-brooded,while I have clearly established 
Fig. 1.—APPLE MAGGOT-FLY. 
the fact that the latter is double-brooded. The 
one under consideration burrows in all direc¬ 
tions, and in varied numbers, in the flesh of the 
fruit, giving it a discolored, honeycombed, rot¬ 
ten, and filthy appearance, but seldom pene¬ 
trating to the core; while the other works for 
the most part around the core, and does not, 
directly, do so much harm to the flesh. The 
maggot is white, footless, tapers anteriorly, with 
no distinctive head ; it quits the apple and en¬ 
ters the ground, in which it merely contracts 
until its skin hardens to a smooth, shiny (co- 
arctate) pupa, with no indications of the future 
state. The Apple-worm, on the contranq in¬ 
clines to pink in color, has sixteen legs, a dis¬ 
tinct head, spins a silken cocoon above ground, 
and, casting off its skin, assumes the chrysalis 
state, in which the members of the future moth 
may easily be traced. The parent flies of the 
apple-maggot do not make their appearance 
until July, and the pupae remain quiescent un¬ 
derground all through the winter and spring. 
No remedies for this pest have ever been sug¬ 
gested, and as it does not affect our cultivated 
apples out West, I have had no opportunity of 
experimenting with it. The remedies which 
would suggest themselves, from the habits of 
the insect, are of too expensive a nature to ever 
be generally used. Thus, by entirely covering 
the ground with flagstones, bricks, or any other 
hard substance, the maggots would not only be 
effectually prevented from completing their 
transformations, but such as are already in the 
ground could not emerge as 
flies. Covering the ground 
thickly with salt, ashes, 
lime, or other substances 
might have a similar effect, 
and should at least be tried, 
especially in isolated or¬ 
chards. It is also very cer¬ 
tain that destruction of the 
infested fruit, either by feed¬ 
ing to hogs or rendering 
into cider, and stirring and 
disturbance of the ground 
in spring, so that birds 
and other predacious animals may get at the 
pupae, are preventive measures, and ive have 
no doubt will be attended with good results. 
N«t the least interesting or important feature 
in this insect’s history is the fact that it exists 
all over the country, West as well as East, feed¬ 
ing on our wild haws; while it is only in the 
Eastern States, already indicated, that it has 
taken to feeding on the cultivated fruit. It fur¬ 
nishes one of the most perfect illustrations of 
the manner in which a new habit may be 
formed, and there is far more danger that this 
Eastern race, which is so appreciative of the 
more delicious cultivated fruits, may spread 
until it also becomes a nuisance in the West, 
than that our Western maggots, which are now 
content with the more insipid wild fruit, should 
likewise learn to attack the cultivated kind.s. 
In the event of such spread of your Eastern 
Apple-maggot, we should have in the West two 
distinct branches of the same species, the one 
working on wild fruit, and never multiplying 
unduly on account of the scattered nature and 
greater scarcity of its food, the other working 
on cultivated fruit and—because of the abun¬ 
dance and concentration of such fruit in or¬ 
chards—multiplying and rioting in it in the 
manner described by Mr. Spatter. 
As the Eastern-bred specimens in the Walsh 
cabinet were destroyed in the great Chicago 
fire, I should be pleased to get some to place 
alongside of those in my cabinet which have 
been reared from wild-haws and crabs here. 
For this purpose I hope Mr. Spatter will send 
me some of the pups next fall, mixed with 
moist earth, and inclosed in a tight tin box. 
In further illustration of the difference between 
the Apple-worm and Apple-maggot, I introduce 
an engraving (fig. 2) of the first-named also. 
St. Louis, Mo., May, 1872. 
- cm t —b -O- bw ► •»■-• 
“What Ails the Bees’ Legs'?” 
Last year we received complaints, accom¬ 
panied by specimens, of a curious trouble with 
the bees. As the matter came to our notice late 
in the season, we thought it better to defer an 
Fig. 1.*— BEE WITH LEGS CLOGGED—(MAGNIFIED). 
explanation of the difficulty until the time 
at which it is likely to occur should come 
round again. In the cases'referred to the bees 
had some extraneous matter attached to their 
legs which impeded their movements to such an 
extent that the insects were unable to climb up 
the comb, and perished in great numbers. A 
very much magnified bee, with 
its legs thus clogged, is shown in 
figure 1. It will be seen that 
numerous pear-shaped masses are 
attached to the legs; a single one 
of these objects is shown in figure 2. 
These curious bodies are the pollen 
masses of the Milk-weed ( Ascle- 
pias ) or, as it is sometimes called, Silk-weed. 
There are several species of Asclepias, some of 
which are very common. Most of them have a 
copious milky juice, whence their most common 
name, Milk-weed, and the seeds of all each have 
a beautiful tuft of silky down, from which is 
derived the other name, Silk-weed. In an arti¬ 
cle, “ The Relations of Insects to Horticulture,” 
we have briefly hinted at the reciprocal benefits 
flowers and insects yield to one another. Flow¬ 
ers furnish in their nectar food to insects, while 
these are of great service to the plant in distri¬ 
buting the pollen. In most plants, the pollen 
is an exceedingly fine dust, but in the Milk¬ 
weeds and some other plants the pollen grains 
Fig. 2. — AFPLE-WOKM MOTU. 
adhere together in masses. In the Milk-weed 
they are so compact that it takes a strong mi¬ 
croscope to show any grains at all, so closely 
are they pressed together in a pear-shaped waxy 
mass. Two of these masses are connected toge¬ 
ther, as shown in the engraving, and the point 
where the filaments or strings which connect 
them join is very sticky. We might dismiss 
the subject by saying that the bee in its visits to 
the flowers of the Milk-weed steps upon these 
sticky portions, which adhere to its feet and 
legs and thus produce the trouble alluded to. 
Some may wish to know more about the matter, 
and we give a drawing of a Milk-weed flower 
(fig. 3), premising that its structure is difficult to 
explain by drawings, but if one has the fresh 
flowers it is more readily understood. The 
flowers of the Milk-weed are produced in large 
umbels or clusters, and in the engraving we 
show only an individual flower. The structure 
of these flowers is such that the pollen can only 
come in contact with the pistil through the 
agency of insects, though, as in the case of the 
bees, the insects sometimes suffer for their bene¬ 
volence. The anthers are placed in a column 
around the pistil, with their filaments united 
into a tube. The anthers have each at the 
top a curious appendage or hood, which 
contains a horn curving toward the center of 
the flower, as in figure 4. Each anther is two- 
celled, each cell containing a pollen mass, but, 
singularly enough, the pollen masses of adjaceat 
anthers are united. In the pollen masses shown 
in figure 2, the right-hand one came 
from one anther, and the left-hand 
one from the next anther to that. 
Stranger still, the top of the pistil, 
the stigma, bears projections by 
which these pollen masses are 
suspended, the adhesive portion 
before alluded to being well ex¬ 
posed. This adhesive portion is 
usually dark-colored and readily 
visible, and one having a flower 
*can by inserting a pin or needle 
just below it lift out the pollen 
masses. . This removal of the pollen masses 
is just what is done by the bees, who, in 
their search for nectar, bring the pollen in con¬ 
tact with the pistil, a place it would never reach 
without their aid. "We are well aware of the 
difficulty of describing this matter, and advise 
those who are curious enough to make such ob¬ 
servations to study the structure of the living 
flower of the Milk-weed, when they will see the 
singular arrangement of pollen, and be able to 
understand what is the matter with the bees. 
Fig. 3.— MILK-WEED 
FLOWEK. 
Fig. 4. 
ANTHEIt. 
