24O THE DAFFODIL FLY IN ESSEX. 



of the Club on the reading of this paper, and afterwards 

 deposited in the Essex Museum of Natural History. As it 

 happened, Mr. Boulenger, of the British Museum, requested it 

 for the National Collection, where it can now be consulted by 

 those interested. 



P.S. — Since this paper was in type, on comparing the 

 description here given with the preserved specimen in the 

 British Museum, there is a distinctly appreciable, but rudi- 

 mentary, condition of dark spot behind the upper part of the 

 operculum. It consists of some five pigmentary serrations 

 above, and as many below, the commencement of the lateral 

 line. Mr. Boulenger remarks that he has previously observed 

 spirit immersion bring out markings barely visible in the fresh 

 condition of other kinds of fish. — J.M. 



The Daffodil Fly in Essex. — This fly, Mevodon eqnestris, 

 appears to be spreading in Essex and likely to become a pest of 

 economic importance in the county as a destroyer of daffodil 

 bulbs. The fly, a Dipteron, belonging to the Syrphidae, appears 

 in May, and is exceedingly bee-like, having its abdomen, as a 

 rule, covered with foxy hair, but very variable both in size and 

 coloration. When flying it emits a very shrill sound and has the 

 habit characteristic of many of the Syrphidae of remaining 

 poised in the air for a time, and then of suddenly darting a 

 distance of about a yard away. It lays its eggs near the base 

 of the daffodil leaves, and the grub hatching in July eats its way 

 into the bulb, afterwards making a hole to the outside through 

 the side or base of the bulb, through which it can dispose of its 

 ejectment. The grub, which is legless, and dark gray or 

 blackish in colour, reaches a length when full grown of about 

 \ -inch. It turns into a black pupa in November, in those 

 cases I have had an opportunity of examining, outside the bulb 

 in the soil. The only means of dealing with the pest appears to 

 be to wait until October is well advanced before planting the 

 bulbs and then to reject and burn all those that feel soft owing 

 to the eating away of the interior of the bulb. 



Fred. J. Chittenden, Biological Laboratory, Chelmsford. 



