The fruit may be attacked at any point on the surface but the punctures are found usually most numerous about the calyx and stem. So far as could be determined, nearly all the wounds that are made in sound fruit occur when the apples are quite small. The feeding punctures, in cases where decay does not set in, usually heal over so that they show only as minute scars in the ripe fruit. The same is true of the egg punctures where the eggs fail to hatch or where the larvae die soon after beginning to feed, as is often the case. The wounds made by the weevils are sometimes found and enlarged by plum curculios and possibly by other sects that feed on apples. The wounds also form centers for the spread of decay.

The larvae that hatch from the eggs feed on the fruit, forming tortuous tunnels through the flesh, or, more often, make large and irregularly shaped feeding chambers about the core. The excavations are filled with dark-colored, granular excrement scarcely any of which is cast to no surface of the fruit. The larvae are not able to reach full growth within apples that hang to the branch and continue to grow vigorously. They will live for a few days in such fruit, feeding about the chamber in which they hatched, but die after a brief effort to subsist on the juicy, growing fruit. In apples that cease to grow, whether they fall to the ground or remain as mummies hanging to the branches, the larvae live, reach full growth and then pupate within the fruit.

It was not determined whether the wounds of the apple weevil alone are sufficient to cause the apple to drop or whether the species is dependent upon assistance from fungous diseases and other insects in causing the appples to come to a condition which suits their requirements in reaching full development.

THE EGG AND OVIPOSITION.

The egg is yellowish white, oval-oblong in shape, .015 inch wide and .020 inch long. All the eggs observed, with the exception of two, were deposited in punctures excavated from young apples by the female beetle. The two exceptions were cases where the eggs were laid in the stems of apples. After the cgg is laid the beetle ejects a small quantity of excrement which is plastered over the opening in the skin, thus effectually sealing the egg chamber. This is evidently done to protect the egg from picdacious insects or mites. The time required by the beetle to make the puncture, deposit the egg and seal the hole was observed in one caso to be 13 minutes.

Of about a dozen eggs that were laid on June 1st, all hatched on June 5th. In numerous other cases the period of incubation was found to be either four or five days. The exact number of eggs that one individual will produce was not determined. A record was secured, however, fron two females that were caught in a few days after oviposition was known to be in progress or the trees. The females, each accompanied by a male, were caught on May 29th and the pairs confined separately in glass jars.

Fresh apples were placed in the jars each morning and the old ones removed and the eggs counted. One of the females lived until June 25th, a

The other lived until June 30th, a
The greatest number laid by one
Egg-laying by the beetles on the

period of 26 days, and laid 119 eggs. period of 31 days, and laid 66 eggs. beetle during any one day was 10. trees seemed to be the most rapid during the period from May 25 to June 15th.

THE LARVA.

The larva is a robust, wrinkled, footless grub about one-eighth of an inch in length. Its color is yellowish white but when feeding on decayed apples the contents of its digestive organs give it a darker appearance. The head is light brown, the jaws dark brown to black. The body is sparsely covered with short hairs, mere numerous near the head. From the head the diameter of the body increases gradually to the eighth segment and then decreases more rapidly to the posterior extremity. The larva is always found in a curved or curled-up position and when removed from the apple it moves awkwardly on its side or back and is unable to straighten out and crawl on its belly like the larva of the plum curculio. The larvae period was found to vary greatly in length ranging from 18 days, in one case, to 53 days in another. Its average duration seemed to be about 30 days. The larvae are able to subsist on apples that are in almost any condition of soundness or decay, except those that are growing vigorously on the tree. Sound, fallen apples, those that are soft and siimy with decay and those that are shriveled and dried until they are almost as hard as wood seem to afford the insect acceptable food. Apparently, the condition of the apple in which the insect was feeding did not effcct greatly the duration of the larval stage.

In many cases in the orchard from three to five larvae were found developing in one apple and in the laboratory as many as twenty reached the beede stage within a single fruit.

THE PUPA.

The larvac change to delicate, white pupae in cells which they make in the tissue of the apple. These cells are just large enough to accommodate and may be located at any place within the apple from near the skin to the core.

the body of the insect

The exact length of the pupal stage was observed in only four indivi- . duals. In each of the four cases it was 8 days. The development of other individuals that were watched less closely indicated that in some cases the stage may be of longer duration though the exact time was not noted It is probable, also, that with some it is less than 8 days. This was indicated in the instance of one precocious individual which accomplished the entire transformation from the laying of the egg to the adult insect in 30 days.

NATURAL ENEMIES.

One parasitic insect was reared from the apple weevil in the manner described as follows. On July 7th an apple was cut open that contained a full-grown weevil larva. Adhering closely to the side of the larva was another minute, white larva that was recognized as a parasite. The two were carefully removed into a breeding bottle and kept under observation. The parasite developed very rapidly in size and two days after being placed in the bottle it had killed and almost entirely devoured its host. When its food was gone it constructed a delicate cocoon of white silk beside the shriveled skin of the insect it had destroyed. Within this cocoon it changed to a pupa on July 13th and on July 20th it emerged from the cocoon as a small, yellowish-brown, four-winged insect. The insect was sent to Washington where it was determined by Mr. H. L. Viereck as Bracon anthonomi Ashm., a species that was reared in 1892 from the strawberry weevil, Anthonomus signatus, by F. H. Chittenden, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.

MEANS OF CONTROL.

Destroying Fallen Fruit.-The weevils usually remain ir fallen apples for a week or more after they drop and any method of destroying the young apples that accumulate on the ground early in the season will dispose of many of the insects.

Spraying.—A part of the orchard at French Creek, in which the investigations described in this bulletin were carried on, was sprayed with arsenate of lead to control the codling moth and plum curculio. No apple weevils were found on the sprayed trees and the fruit, which was observed closely, showed no injury from this species. The habit which the beetles have of feeding on apple foliage makes it clear that they are within the reach of poisonous sprays and explains their apparent absence on the sprayed portion of the orchard. There is little doubt that many of the beetles are killed by swallowing the poison that adheres to the leaves of sprayed trees.

Jarring. The beetles can be caught with sheets in the manner described for dealing with the plum and apple curculios, but as has been stated already, the jarring of large apple trees is not often practicable.

Plate I. A view in a properly sprayed orchard. The N J. Thatcher Company's thirteen year old orchard near Martinsburg, W. Va. Photogaph taken a few days before the 1909 crop was harvested.

Spraying for the Codling Moth

Eastern and Western Methods Compared

(A Preliminary Report.)

W. E. Rumsey,

INTRODUCTION.

Undoubtedly the worst enemy of the apple crop in West Virginia is the codling moth-the insect that causes the wormy apple. This pest is taking altogether too much toll from the apple growers of our State and as our fruit industry is going forward by leaps and bounds more attention must be given to the control of this arch enemy of the orchardist. A great amount has been written about this insect, and much time and money spent in carrying cn experiments to devise ways and means for controlling it. At last spraying with arsenical poisons has become the practical method by which this pest is kept in check. However, the manner of applying the poison is not, apparently, definitely settled by the entoinologists of the different sections of the United States. When the Eastern entomologists seemed to have hit upon just the way of applying the material-a fine mist spray with a medium amount of pressure applied two or three times during the season, the first spraying just after the petals have falien-their Western colleagues comes forward with the statement backed up with results obtained in their territory, that a coarsehigh-pressure spray applied once at the right time (just after the petals fall) will give as good or even better results than are secured by the application of three or four mist sprays. The reasons advanced for the good results obtained by using the coarse-high-pressure spray is that with this method the poison is forced into the lower calyx cup of the forming applc where it remains ready to be eaten by the young worm when it begins to mine into the apple through the calyx end; while with a mist spray no poison is put into this cavity. merely being left within the surface of the outer calyx cup. and thus not as likely to be eaten by the worm in its passage to the lower cup where it enters the fruit. "The calyx cups must be filled" is the slogan of our Westrn friends if one praying is to be successful. It is a well known fact that a large majority of the ürst brood worms enter the apples through the calyx or blossom end; therefore, if these worms are all killed there will not be enough moths develop to lay eggs for the second brood of worms to make it necessary to spray the second time.