2 
APPLE. 
The caterpillars, on being disturbed, gave out a strong smell, some¬ 
thing like that of the common plant-bugs (or bed-bugs), or that of the 
Goat Moth caterpillar. Some of the injured Apples had been already 
deserted by the caterpillar, which goes down into the ground for its 
change. 
The method of attack is stated to be for the Sawflies to fly in 
May to the Apple blossom, and lay their eggs on the embryo fruit. 
Within this forming fruit the caterpillar feeds, until it falls, towards 
June or July, within the injured fruit, and then, creeping from it, 
goes down into the ground, where it forms a cocoon, in which it 
remains inactive until the following year. 
(From my own observations I incline to think that the caterpillars 
also sometimes leave an infested fruit and make entrance into another 
from the outside, as, amongst the collection of Apples I made, I found 
one of the caterpillars with only about a quarter of its length stick¬ 
ing out of an otherwise uninjured Apple, into which it was then 
burrowing.) 
The caterpillar turns to the pupa, and thence to the Sawfly in the 
cocoon below ground, and in the attack noted by Professor Westwood,* 
as observed by him in his garden at Hammersmith, he mentions that 
in the middle of May he found the Sawflies, which had come out from 
the cocoons, hovering about the blossoms of the Apple trees which 
had been infested the previous year, and distinctly saw one of the 
female Sawflies laying her eggs within the blossom. 
The Sawfly is very like the Turnip Sawfly (figured under that 
head) both in size and shape, perhaps rather smaller, and may be 
generally described as reddish or pale orange coloured, and black, or 
largely mottled with black, above. The caterpillar differs from that of 
the Turnip Sawfly in having one pair less of sucker-feet, and is, as 
above mentioned, whitish, with an ochre-coloured head. 
The attack was very destructive to Apples in my own garden, and 
on enquiry I was informed that much harm was being done just in the 
same way in the neighbourhood of Isleworth. 
When the small Apples are found to be falling, which is often the 
first information of attack, of course nothing can be done to save the 
killed fruit, but a repetition of the attack next year may be in great 
degree prevented by having all the fallen Apples picked up as soon as 
possible, say twice a day. The caterpillar often remains some little 
time in the fallen fruit, and, if all the Apples are gathered up and 
destroyed , a great many caterpillars will thus be got rid of. 
Where the soil under the attacked trees is not disturbed by cropping 
during summer, coming injury may be much lessened by skimming off 
the surface-soil in autumn or winter, and destroying this with the 
* Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ 1847, pp. 851, 852. 
