5o8 Bulletin 78. 



We have had several of the flies emerge in cages of young cabbage plants, 

 from hibernating puparia brought from Long Island ; and also have had 

 hundreds of the flies of the second brood emerge in large frame cages 

 (figure 10) containing radish, turnip, cabbage, and hedge mustard plants. 

 Yet the female could not be induced to lay a single egg ; while flies came in 

 from out of doors and freely oviposited on similar plants growing exposed in 

 a bed but a few feet from the cages. Thus all our efforts to breed this insect 

 from the egg in confinement, have thus far been unsuccessful. 



Habits of the first brood of viaggots. — In emerging, the maggot 

 pushes through the blunter end of the ^"gg which splits down 

 along the sides of the deep groove. The young maggots at once 

 attack the surface of the root. By means of its 

 strong, curved, hook-like mouth parts shown much 

 enlarged in figure 9, it soon rasps out a burrow 

 along the surface. The tender rootlets seem to be 

 the first objective point of the young larvae. 

 These destroyed, the maggots turn their attention 

 parts of the mi g- to the main root into which they burrow, often 

 1argef.'^{A'dap7ed girdling it as shown in figure i. The figure on the 

 from J. . ""'■'■) fi-Qj^t of the bulletin shows the maggots at this 

 work, and their effect on a cabbage root. 



Usually the maggots are found in slimy burrows in the bark 

 just beneath the surface ; and sometimes one is found just enter- 

 ing the bark, " with the end of its body projecting stiffly out, like 

 a peg driven in half its length," as Dr. Fitch describes it. The 

 interior portion of a rather large cabbage root is so woody that 

 the maggots do not often work in it, but they sometimes pene- 

 trate into the interior of the softer stem farther up. When but a 

 few maggots occur on a root, they are usually to be found in 

 their burrows ; but often so many maggots attack one plant that 

 as they increase in size there is not room for all in the bark. In 

 this case, as Mr. Fletcher saj^s, " most of them lie outside in the 

 soil, which is kept wet by the juices of the injured plant." 

 Where we have seen this state of affairs, the maggots were nearly 

 full grown and the plant had toppled over. Thus, all the mag- 

 gots doubtless had access to the plant for food during much of 

 their life, but probably they were being nourished by the juices 

 exuding from the injured plant when found. When this stage in 

 the ravages of the maggots is reached , on a cabbage plant especi- 



