576 Bulletin 78. 



ilarity between the descriptions of his ruficeps and of radicum I,inn. Care- 

 ful comparison showed these descriptions to be almost identical, word for 

 word ! The only differences between the insects, indicated by the descrip- 

 tions, relates to a slight difference in the coloring of the face, the scales, 

 and the halteres ; the face of radicum is said to be " schwarzschillernd " 

 and the scales and halteres yellowish, while in ruficeps the face is " rostro- 

 them " and the scales and halteres are white (Mr. Meade describes the face 

 of female floccosa as either red or black). The female of ruficeps was un- 

 known to Meigen, and in fact the species does not seem to have been recog- 

 nized since Meigen's time ; Schiner had not seen it. Thus all the evidence 

 I have found leads me to believe that ruficeps Meig. should be placed in the 

 synonomy of Anthornyia radicum Linn.; at least there is scarcely a chance 

 of its being identical with brassicce Bouche. 



My breeding experiments, and a study of flies bred from maggots infest- 

 ing radishes in different parts of the country, lead me to believe that the 

 Radish Fly or Maggot of economic entomological literature is identical with 

 the Cabbage Maggot. A study of the literature brings out the following 

 evidence. 



European writers, following Bouch^'s lead, have called the Radish Fly, 

 Anthornyia floralis Fallen. While American entomologists have usually 

 adopted Dr. Harris' name, Attthotnyia raphani ; some use radicum Linn. 

 Bouche's description of the larva and puparium of floralis Fall, agrees 

 closely with his descriptions of the Cabbage Maggot, and with my speci- 

 mens ; he describes it as feeding on Raphanus sativus. Taschenberg com- 

 piles his descriptions of the early stages of ^ora/z5 Fall, (as the " Rettich- 

 fliege") from Bouche, introducing, however, the phrase " ist also stark 

 schwarz gekornelt, ' ' which is very misleading as can be seen by referring to 

 the accounts of both authors. There are no specific diflferences between 

 Taschenberg's descriptions of the flies oi floralis and brassiccs. Miss Orme- 

 rod has used the name Anthornyia floralis Fall., the Radish Fly, since 1882 

 for the maggot doing the most damage to cabbage in England. Taschen- 

 berg and Schmidt-Gobel record brassiccB Bouche as attacking the various 

 species of Brassica, Raphanus sativus and radiola, Turnips, and Stocks 

 (Matthiola). 



In this country. Dr. Harris gave a name to a Radish Fly in 1835, but pub- 

 lished no description of it until 1841. None of Dr. Harris' types are known 

 to be in existence, and no one has since definitely characterized the species as 

 distinct from brassiccs Bouche. In 1867, Dr. Fitch was unable to separate 

 his cabbage or turnip flies or maggots from those bred from radish, yet he 

 described them separately as brassicce and raphani. It is not until 1882 that 

 we again find the distinctness of raphani seriously questioned by entomol- 

 ogists. Then Dr. Lintner, in discussing rapharii thought it quite probable 

 that it was identical with radicum Linn.; Dr. Fitch had reached a similar 

 conclusion in 1867, but he was not able to separate radicum and brassica. 

 There is a single specimen in existence labelled raphani by Dr. Fitch, but 



