250 



THE AGRICULTUEAL NEWS. 



August 7, 1909. 



INSECT NOTES. 



New Species of Cecidomyiidae. 



The tiower-bud maggot of cr>tton {Covtarinla 

 gossypli), A\hichhas twice apfieared at Antigua as 

 a serious pest, and which has also occurred at Mont- 

 serrat, has formed t!ie subjt^ct of several articles in the 

 Aijrlcultnral Xeirs (see V'ul. VII. p. 155, Vol. VIII, 

 pp. 10, 58), and of a paper in the Wr>.f IikUiiu Bulletin 

 (Vol. X, p. 1) by the Entomologist on the staff of the 

 Imperial Deparinient of Agriculcure. 



The flower-bud maggot was first described and given 

 a name by Dr. E. P. Felt, New York State Entomologist. 



During the investigations which -were carried out in 

 Antigua in .January oi the present year, in connexion with 

 the attack of flower-bud maggot, several additional species 

 of closely related flies were obtained. A collection of this 

 material has been studied by Dr. Felt, who has given names 

 to three species new to science. 



The following notes may be of interest to the readers of 

 the A'/ricii.ltiiral A''ews. Only one species of flower-bud 

 maggot hii.s been obtained fi'om the cotton, although the buds 

 and flowers of both the wild cotton and Sea Island cotton 

 have been collected and flies reared from them. Caravonica 

 cotton is also attacked, probably by the same species, but 

 the adult flies have not been studied. 



by coming in contact with the film of oil generally to be seen 

 on the outside of kerosene lamps. This species has been 

 named Lohodiplosis spinosa. Another new species of this 

 family has Ijeen recorded from Barbados, the maggot living 

 under the bark of the' twigs of ilango {Maw/ if em indiai). 

 Grafted mangos seem to be the more often attacked, and 

 these when young are often seriously injured and sometimes 

 killed Ijy the attacks of the maggot. This insect has been 

 named Asi/iiaida MdHfjifeirie. 



Previous to the appearance of the flower-bud maggot in 

 Antigua in the season of 1907-8, only a few species of 

 Cecidomyiid fly had been recorded from the Lesser Antille.s, 

 and none of these were known as pests. This was the maggot 

 of cotton {Porrirondi/la ijossypii) which made its appearance 

 as a pest of cotton in Barbados in 1904. It has since been 

 seen in Montserrat. The maggot of this species lives under 

 the bark of the stems of the cotton plant and often causes 

 the death of all the plant above the point of attack. 



The family to which these insects belong is called the 

 Gall-midge family, but none of the West Indian .species of 

 which the life-history is known forms any gall or conspicuous 

 swelling, and the adult insects are .so small that they would 

 not be likely to be seen or known at all, if it were not for 

 the damage they do. 



SELECTION 



The 



IM'KS'lKli ILciW |;K-I;L|iS Ol- ((ITTON MMWINC ( II A |;A( t ICU- 



isTir FL.vuixo OF Tiin iii;acts of TIIK SMAI.r, IU'I>S 



(IWINIi TO THK ATTACK OF THE l-I.nWKIMUJ l> 



^lACCOT. 



The Privet or Wild Cofl'eo {Clerodendriini (iriileiiliiin) 

 is attacked by, or at least harbours in its inrtore,s('en(-e, some 

 three or four species of Cecidomyiid flies. One of the.se is the 

 .same as that which attacks cotton, one is stated to be another 

 species of Confarinia, one a species of Prodijilnsis, and there 

 is another which, from its relation, might be called the 

 privet maggot. This species Dr. Felt has named A.yi/miid;/lia 

 attenu'ila. 



Another insect belonging to this family may often be 

 seen in Antigua about the lights, or more accurately, may be 

 .seen on the sides of the lamps where they liave been killed 



OP CATTLE FOR MILKING 

 CAPACITY. 

 following is taken from a notice, in the Indian 

 Agricultaral Journal, of a paper read 

 before the Farmers' Club by an Essex 

 dairy farmer : — 



The method followed depended upon making 

 the milking capacity of the cow the chief factor in 

 selection for breeding purposes, and remarkable 

 figures were given to illustrate the results 

 obtained, in the matter of the output of milk 

 for each cow, by the adoption of such a scheme. 

 The information which was required for guid- 

 ance in selection was obtained by carefully 

 measuring and recording the milk given by 

 e^ery indiv idual cow^ on a certain day in each 

 week. This practice was not only useful in 

 affording the owner the means of estimating, 

 with a near approach to accuracy, the profit 

 and loss on each cow, but it possessed a greater 

 value in that it was a guide to indicate 

 tlio.se cows' which should be employed for the 

 rearing of calves. Thus, on one side, the chief 

 criterion in selection was the po.sses.sion of 

 a good milk pedigree. On the side of the sires, 

 a similar consideration obtained, which was that the 

 liulls should also have come of good milking stock, that 

 is one in which the same, or similar, records have been kept. 

 A pedigree bull from a herd bred simply for beef was not 

 necessarily of any value ; what is required is one of a stock 

 whose cows possess milking capacitj- superior to that of the 

 preceding generation. 



The writer of the , paper had, by the adoption of such 

 method.s, obtained heifers after the first calf, which, at the 

 age of two and a half years, gave 11 quarts of milk a day, a.s 

 against 11 ipiarts for the same class a few years ago. 



The methods set forth are not new, but are 

 suggestive, and indicate that if their adoption rcstilDs 

 in improvement of the more highlj- selected ]ilnglish 

 stock, much more, then, would it do so in the case 

 of ordinary West Inilian cattle. 



