498 Bulletin 78. 



no one has yet questioned his determination of the species, it ought to be 

 easily distinguished from the other more common cabbage and onion 

 maggots. 



The adult insect closely resembles the cabbage fly, and is re- 

 corded as occurring frequently in Germany and as excessively 

 common in England. 



Mr. Meade says it may be recognized by its projecting face ; by the scales 

 of the base of the wings being unequal in size; by the thorax being black and 

 marked in the male by two short, grey, narrow stripes ; by the rather short, 

 wide, somewhat pointed abdomen, with a longitudinal dorsal black mark, 

 crossed by three transverse straight black stripes extending of an equal width 

 to the margins; and by the third and fourth longitudinal veins of the wings 

 being slightly convergent at their extremities. This inequality in the size 

 of the alular scales, the shape of the abdomen, the markings on the body, 

 and the convergence of the third and fourth longitudinal veins of the wings 

 are characters, any one of which would distinguish the male fly, at least, 

 from the cabbage fly ; a reference to our descriptions and figures of the cab 

 bage fly will enable one to more clearly understand some of these differences. 



In fact, the flies of the Cabbage Root Maggot and the Root 

 Maggot difier so much that they are now placed in difl"erent 

 genera. The Root Maggot belongs to the genus Anthomyia. 

 Its specific name, radicum, ifidicates that it lives on the roots of 



plants. 



However, as we have mentioned above, Bouche recorded the maggots as 

 breeding in human dung. Other authors say it feeds on the roots of the 

 cabbage tri* e and on radishes. It would seem as though there must be some 

 mistake here, for Bouche states that it needs only 8 to lo days for its growth 

 from the egg to the pupa. The pupa stage he says lasts 2 or 3 weeks. 

 Nothing is said about it feeding on roots. It seems hardly probable that a 

 maggot working in a living root would develop so quickly. This poiikt 

 should be investigated. If Bouche has made a mistake, it should be known, 

 and the true Root Maggot definitely described. 



One can readily see from this brief discussion of the Root Mag- 

 got, how incomplete and indefinite our knowledge is regarding its 

 habits and early stages. It is to be hoped that some observer 

 may be able to fill this gap in our knowledge. 



