For the larva of the Apple Seed Chalcid Fly (Syntomaspis druparuni) is hidden within an apple seed.

This little four-winged Chalcid, somewhat wasp-like in shape, bright green in colour with coppery or bronzy metallic reflections and brownish yellow legs, is only about three-tenths of an inch long, yet it has contrived to give its offspring an excellent start on a travellers career.

In July, where they are plentiful, the adult Apple Seed Chalcids may be seen flitting with a rapid zigzag course in the orchards.

Here and there a female stops upon an apple, at this time grown to half an inch or an inch in diameter, pierces the skin with a slender ovipositor as long as its own body, pushes this delicate weapon home until its tip has penetrated a seed, and finally deposits one or more eggs in the seeds soft interior.

The eggs hatch and the larvae begin their existence with a battle for life or death, for the six or seven which sometimes hatch in one seed are reduced to one by the old expedient of cannibalism.