The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-08-15
$25,OOO,OOO MOTH, THIS
T Eats A THIRD OF THE APPLE
AND PEAR CROP YEARLY.


traotod by a Flame.
Although Il costs the farmers Of /
New York State one.third Of their |
apple and pear crop every year" said !
an entomologist IN the New York sun |
(which means In money at least 3d.
100000, and that is less than one-eighth
OF what &c costs the farmers and fruit
growers annually In the country at
large. scarcely one farmer or fruit
grower In ten ever saw a codling moth.
Yet the insect during It's breeding sea-
son is busy by tens Of thousands in
every orchard
"The reason why the cooling moth
is seen so rarely is that 1t alone among
the many varieties Of moths, has not
the habit Of being attracted at night 10y
a light or flame, and It has the faculty
Of secretng itself so completely during
the day that the most violent disturb
ance of its retreat does not cause IL
to take wing or move from its lurking
places In the orchard trees the rough
scaly bark Of which It so closely re-
sembles that even If one of the insects
were resting on the exterior Of the
bark it would defy the sharpest Of eyes
to detect.
"a flaming torch placed at night
under every tree in an orchard would
fail to draw a single cooling moth
from its work Of egg laying in the
trees, although its cousins Of all yari-
cites would be Fastening from all di-
/ rectlons to meet destruction in the
fascinating fame.
The average lay person knows moth
ing about the codling moth in its rela-
ton to the worm he finds so frequently
in the apple he bites into, and, as a
matter of fact, 1t is only within recent
years that entomologists even have ac-
quainted themselves with the entire
life history Of the insect.
"The codling moth energies from its
cocoon about ten days after he apple
blossoms have fallen from the trees
in the spring and the young fruit is
grown to perhaps an inch IN diameter.
The cocoons lie beneath the scaly bark
Of the apple tree trunks.
"The moth is about half an inch long
and has four wings. It comes from
the cocoon at night and at once begins
depositing its eggs. A codling moths
egg is nearly fat, and not larger than
small pinhead So small is it that,
although the moth has been known to
naturalists for nearly three centuries,
it was only four or five years ago its
egg was discovered positively and de-
scribed.
THE egg is deposited and glued to
the surface Of the apple, only a single
egg on an apple. If one codling moth
finds that another one has already fas-
tened an egg on an apple, it will not
leave an egg of its own there, but will
seek unpreempted fruit.
Each moth lays from eighty to 10C
eggs. The egg matches a tiny worm al
the end of perhaps ten days, always al
night
THE worm at once crawls to thu
blossom end of the apple, enters th'
cavity there and tunnels down to thu
core, where it feasts and grows anC
fattens on the heart of the fruit, anC
at the end of the month tunnels its way
| back to the surface, emerging plump
pinkish caterpillar three-quarterS of al
inch long, always coming out at night
In truth, this creature, at all stage
of its existence, seems to love dark
ness better than light.
1T makes its way without delay t
the trunk Of the tree, where it wrap
itself about with its cocoon beneath
sheltering scale of bark, and remain
there in hiding until it in turn develop
into a moth the next season, or, if tn
fruit in which it had its home be a
early variety, the same season. in whic
case the caterpillar undergoes a doubl
: metamorphosis
: "Tiny as the codling moths egg il
there is a fly so small that it can d.
post as many as four of its own egg
; into a single egg of the moth. Til
. fy's eggs hatch worms that devOU
the embryo of the moth in the egl
and thus hosts of the moths ravenoU
progeny are destroyed before they hay
; begun active life
= "Other parasitic enemies of the cate
pillar make away with untold number
: of the insects, and vast numbers {
= the cocoons are uncovered and the
contents devoured by woodpeckers an
other insectivorOus birds, but enoug
: come to maturity to assess a bounty
= $25,000,000 a year on the farmers
y the country to keep them in board al
y | 1odos,o