k Maggot_

Although none of the weevils of the group just discussed attacks
walnuts, the fruit of this tree has a serious enemy in the walnut husk
maggot. This insect is most familiar in the form of multitudes of
dirty-white maggots inhabiting the blackened, slimy husk of ripening
walnuts. Originally, the black walnut furnished the favorite food of
this insect, although the husk of butternuts was sometimes attacked.
More recently the pest has turned its attention to the Persian walnuts
which are fruiting in many places in the east. The watery, dark-colored
pulp into which the husk of the nut is converted when the maggots begin
to feed penetrates the shell of the nut and injures the kernel by
staining it and imparting a strong flavor. The operation of hulling is
also made doubly disagreeable, the nut coming out of the husk discolored
and dirty.

These maggots hatch from eggs inserted into the husk of nuts by a
light-colored fly about the size of our common housefly. Although easily
overlooked, these flies may be seen on the nuts at almost any time in
August and September. They have strong ovipositors with which they
puncture the surface of nuts and insert into the openings masses of
white eggs from which the maggots hatch.

As to the control of this pest, the speaker obtained very promising
results in spraying Persian walnut trees belonging to our friend, J. G.
Rush, at West Willow, Pa., with a solution of 1-1/2 pounds of lead
arsenate to 50 gallons of water with 10 pounds of glucose sugar added to
impart a sweet taste. The flies were observed feeding on the sweet
coating given to the leaves and the nuts that ripened later were
comparatively free from maggots. It was obvious that the flies died from
the poison before depositing many eggs in the nuts.

_Twig Girdlers_

During the past two seasons the speaker has made special studies of
several species of beetles which cut or girdle young hickory trees, or
the branches of larger trees, causing the severed part to break off or
die. Not fewer than four distinct species of beetles in the east have
this habit. Three of the insects do their damage in the larval stage.
One of these, _Elaphidion villosum_, has been called the twig-pruner. It
is a well known species and its work in pruning the branches of hickory
and various other trees has often been referred to. The other two
species which sever the wood in their larval stage are _Pseudobidion
unicolor_ and _Agrilus arcu