The Cabbage Root Maggot. 501 



a very beneficial insect. Mr. Meade writes Dr. Lintner recently : 

 "It is very curious that it should feed both upon animal and 

 vegetable food. Some Muscids (in larva state) eat decaying 

 (rotten) animal and vegetable matter, but I was not aware that 

 they would feed upon them in the fresh state." 



None of the popular names which this insect has received 

 adequatelj^ express what such a name should. It would be 

 difficult to get a name that would suggest such a variety and 

 diversity of food habits. We therefore propose a popular name — 

 the Fringed Anthomyiian — which was suggested by a peculiarity 

 which distinguishes the adult male insect from other American 

 Anthomyiians. 



The fly very closely resembles the Onion Fly, but is consider- 

 ably smaller. 



The character by which this fly can be distinguished and separated from 

 all other Anthomyiians is to be found in a row of short, rigid, bristly hairs 

 of almost equal length on the inside of the hind tibiae of the males, as shown 

 at c in figure 6. Thus the popular name — the Fringed Anthomyiian — at 

 once suggests this characteristic fringe of hairs of the male insect. As is 

 shown at a, b, and c in figure 6, this "fringe " on the tibia of this insect 

 renders it easily distinguishable from the male flies of the Cabbage Root 

 Maggot and the Ouion Maggot ; the fly of the Root Maggot also has no 

 similar armature on its hind legs. The females of this species can scarcely 

 be separated from allied Anthom}-iians unless found in connection with their 

 males ; usually the smaller size of the female of the Fringed Anthomyiian 

 will distinguish it from the Cabbage and Onion Flies. 



The maggots of this Fringed Anthomyiian very closely resem- 

 ble the Onion Maggots. The only differences we find (from a 

 study of only two or three specimens of each species) are in the 

 size of the full grown maggots, and in the number of divisions of 

 the cephalic spiracles. 



The maggots of the PVinged Anthomyiian are considerably smaller, and 

 there is apparently only 6 or 7 divisions in their cephalic spiracles, one 

 specimen having 6 in one spiracle and 7 in the other ; there are usually 11 

 or 12 divisions in the Onion Maggot. The figure of the caudal end of the 

 Onion Maggot, at d and e in figure 6, will represent equally well the same 

 portion of the maggot of this species, so far as our few specimens indicate. 



Thus these two species are closely allied in both their adult 

 and larval stages, and both feed on the onion, "passing through 

 their transformations at the same time," says Mr. Meade. How- 



