INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CORN. 



243 



Fig. 1. — Adult Fly of Seed-Corn Maggot, Pegomyia fusciceps, 

 the ^^tt. ; enlarged eight and two-thirds diameters. 



feed upon the eggs of grasshoppers. The exact and complete hfe history 

 of this insect has never been fully worked up, but from what observations 

 have been made, it is supposed that the insect has two broods a year. 



While this insect 

 does nothing like 

 the amount of dam- 

 age to seed corn in 

 the ground that 

 wireworms do, it 

 may, nevertheless, 

 at some future 

 time, especially in 

 certain localities, 

 become an import- 

 ant insect in this 

 respect. The larva 

 is not able, appar- 

 ently, to injure the 

 seed corn until it 

 has been in 



ground long enough to have become soft and swollen, after which the 

 insect will eat its way into the kernel, mining it out, especially about the 

 embryo, which it usually kills. The larva will also feed by mining in the 

 young root after the seed sprouts, so that the insect in either case is sure 

 to kill the young plant by preventing its development or the seed from 

 sprouting, as the case may be. A larva is shown magnified eleven diam- 

 eters in figure 2, and a larva is shown feeding inside of a kernel of corn 

 in figure 3, this larva being about natural size. 



The larvae may be found from the middle of May until the middle 

 of June. The pupa stage is passed in the ground, and it is usually more 

 abundant during the first two weeks in June. The adults may be seen 

 flying about from the middle of June 

 until the middle of August. A pupa 

 is shown in figure 4, magnified 

 about eleven diameters, and an adult 

 insect is shown in figure i, magni- 

 fied about nine diameters. 



There seems to be no good method yet devised for fighting these 

 insects in the field, although at some future time, if they should become 

 so abundant as to require the entire replanting of the field, or a portion 

 of the field, no doubt a good deal of good could be done by soaking 



Fig. 2. — Seed-Corn 

 eleven diameters. 



Maggot ; enlarged 



