Looks like a leaf roller. At least that is a possibility. They often web up a leaf next to a fruit. They attach the leaf to the fruit with their webbing. Or they just roll up in one or two leaves in webbing. When a fruit is involved, they feed on the surface of the leaf and the fruit.

I have them outside and in my greenhouse. They come in varying sizes and attack all kinds of fruit and nut trees.

The Fruitnut

Perhaps codling moth.

Reason I said leaf roller rather than codling moth is that damage to the fruit was only on the surface. Codling moth goes to the core. Leaf roller is a surface feeder. But jean is right in that a worm in an apple or pear your mind goes first to CD.

The Fruitnut

I did have some CM damage this year that didn't penetrate too deeply, the worm evidently being killed by Spinosad residues on the young fruit.

I would guess that CM are more inclined to tunneling than leafroller? Or no?

Leaf rollers don't tunnel, they are surface feeders. They often feed over a fairly large area, all the area they have covered with a leaf and their webbing. The pattern of damage is much different than CM.

The Fruitnut

Thanks for the thoughts all: Maybe it is an insect that prefers to go deep but can't because this is some very hard fruit. I've read somewhere where the stage of fruit development when the fruit is attacked can dissuade deeper intrusions into fruit than would otherwise occur. I don't know.

I have yet to see any CM on peach and apple over the last 4 years in my location. This is not to say there is none. The apples get bagged and peaches get sockies, both are sprayed prior to that.

Either I'm darned good (unlikely), the cultural methods and sprays have worked, there are no CM around here or I'm lucky so far (the most likely). Perhaps a combination of some of the above.

Michael

Hi Michael,

Agree with Fruitnut the feeding sounds like leafroller. What's strange is the most common apple leafroller is the Oblique banded leafroller. Their larva are green, which doesn't match the picture. There are other leafrollers though.

Great picture.

As was said, leafrollers are surface feeders.

I suggest codling moth for a number of reasons:
- wrong color for leafroller; they generally tend toward the greenish side.
- correct "pinkish" color for CD
- light brown head capsule, as for CD
- light brown pro-thoracic plate (just behind the head, again as for CD.
- codling moths burrow into the fruit; This one may have caught before it made it that far. Or perhaps it was just plain lazy.

Jean: what do you mean by "CD" I assume you mean CM?

I did find a few oblique-banded leaf rollers this year as evidenced below, do you concur?

{{gwi:121545}}

Michael

Oops. Yes; it should be CM rather than CD. (sigh)

And yes, the dark-headed fellow is a leafroller. Doesn't much matter which one. Seldom, if ever, a significant problem for trees.