The Cabbage Root Maggot. 485 



In this country the insect first attracted attention as a radish pest nearly 

 60 years ago ; Dr. Harris then thought it different from its European con- 

 geners and named it as a new species*. In j 867, Dr. Fitch recorded the 

 insect as infecting cabbages, cauliflowers, turnips, rutabagas, and radishes. 

 Although he discussed the Cabbage-fly and the Radish-fly under different 

 names, yet he was unable to discover any differences between them. 



In 1872, Mr. Brill, a market gardener, recorded that he "believed the 

 Cabbage Maggot and Radish Maggot to be one and the same." Five years 

 later, Dr. Riley said : " The species affecting the Cabbage, the Onion, the 

 Radish, etc., have received different names but several of them doubtless 

 constitute but one species." 



During the next decade, all writers seem to have considered the Cabbage-mag- 

 got and Radish-maggots as separate insects. In 1887, however, Prof. Cook gave 

 a detailed account of some very important experiments to prove his belief 

 that the insects which attack the onion, the cabbage, and the radish are but 

 trimorphic forms of one species. His experiments quite conclusively show 

 the identity of the cabbage and radish maggots ; but the evidence is not 

 suflEicient to support the conclusion that the Onion and Cabbage-maggots 

 are the same.f 



The next year Prof. Cook said : "I am more and more convinced that 

 the insects of the genus Anthomyia, working on onions, cabbages, and 

 radishes are one and the same species. This year beans have been seriously 

 injured again by a similar, I believe the same species." However, this Bean 

 Root Maggot appeared in Canada in 1885, and Mr. Jack (17th Rept. Ont. 

 Ent. Soc. , p. 17) shows that it is the Fringed Anthomyiian {Phorbia fusciceps 

 Zett. ), and not the Cabbage Root Maggot. 



Recently, Mr. Fletcher sent me considerable material reared in Canada 

 from Cabbages and Turnips (British Columbia). Only one species, the Cab- 

 bage Root Maggot, was represented. 



In 1882, Dr. Lintner recorded this pest in a new role, not suspecting, how- 

 ever, that it was the common Cabbage Root Maggot. He bred the insect 



*In the notes on the bibliography in the latter part of this bulletin, I have given my 

 reasons, from the systematist's standpoint, for considering Dr. Harris' Radish-maggot the 

 same as the Cabbage Root Maggot. 



t Through the kindness of Prof. Davis, I have been able to examine some of the material 

 bred by Prof. Cook in 1S87. I saw specimens of flies bred from radishes, and flies and 

 maggots reared on cabbages ; all were typical Phorbia brassiae, Bouch^, the Cabbage Root 

 Maggot, while the flies and maggots bred from onions were all typical Phorbia ceparum, 

 the Onion Maggot. There is another Anthomyiian which has been bred from onions, 

 namely, the Fringed Anthomyiian, Phorbia fusciceps Zett., that quite possibly may have 

 been present with the Onion and the Cabbage Root Maggots in Prof. Cook's experiment. 

 Dr. Riley has bred this species from cabbages and radishes, and to a casual observer it 

 would form a good connecting link between the large indistinctly marked Onion Fly and 

 the Cabbage Fly. I have not seen specimens of Prof Cook's Raspberry Maggot, but Mr. 

 Fletcher sent me one wing and a puparium of an Anthomyiian which he bred from rasp- 

 berry canes ; the wing was similar to that of the Cabbage Fly, but the puparium was dis- 

 tinctly different frcm that of any Anthomyiian with which I am acquainted. Thus it is 

 very doubtful if the raspberry should be recorded among the food-plants of the Cabbage 

 Root Maggot. 



