1911 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 57 



ledons were seen to have little holes eaten in them, usually many holes in a single 

 cotyledon, and very often the plumule had a little hole bored in it from above 

 downwards for a short distance, less than one-sixth of an inch. It was quite evi- 

 dent that some insect had done the damage. Many of the other plants in the rows 

 which were more advanced in growth were also noticed to be unhealthy and dying. 

 The first pair of true leaves were limp and hanging down around the stem, in- 

 stead of erect and spread out in their natural horizontal position. On digging up 

 some of these plants a discolored hole was noticed in the stem usually just above 

 the root, but sometimes in the root. When these stems were cut open they were 

 found to have a little tunnel running up through the centre, and at the end of 

 each tunnel a little white maggot was usually found. These maggots were evi- 

 dently killing the plants by boring in the stems. 



At the next farm visited a field was examined in which the beans had failed 

 to germinate properly. Only a very few plants had come up in the rows and the 

 owner was about to resow the field. The beans in this field had been planted just 

 before a cold rainy spell lasting about three days. On uncovering some of the 

 beans it was found that they were badly eaten by the same little white maggot 

 that had been found in the stems. Half a dozen or more of the maggots were 

 often found feeding upon a single bean. They were generally beneath the seed 

 coat and between the cotyledons. Many more bean fields were examiner! and in 

 all the maggots were found in greater or less numbers. Sometimes the seeds had 

 been so badly eaten that they had failed to germinate, hut in many instances 

 though the cotyledons had been attacked by the maggots, the seed had germinated 

 and pushed the damaged cotyledons above the ground and the plants appeared in 

 the rows as discolored stubs. Though the maggots caused many blackish stubs 

 in the rows and killed many of the more advanced plants by boring in the stems, 

 the chief damage done by them was undoubtedly the destruction of the seed in the 

 ground, making replanting necessary. The writer was informed that in some sea- 

 sons many hundreds of acres had to be replanted on account of the work of the 

 maggots. 



While looking over one of the fields a large number of small flies were noticed 

 hovering over and lighting on the bean plants. Suspicion was at once aroused that 

 these these flies weie the adults of the maggots. After some little trouble a num- 

 ber of them were paptured and put on one side for closer examination than could 

 be made in the field. At the same time a large number of the little white mag- 

 gots, with the bean-3 they were feeding on, were collected and placed in tin tubes 

 and covered with a little moist earth. 



The maggots were collected on June 31st, and on June 23rd, the day the 

 writer leturned to the College, they were all removed from the tubes. They had 

 not apparently suffered from their journey, as they all seemed active and healthy. 

 Two lots of the maggots and beans were put in large glass vials, the mouths of 

 which were closed with plugs of cotton batting. A third lot was placed in a pot 

 of moist sand in a breeding cage. On June 35th it was noticed that four or five 

 of the maggots in the vials had pupated, and hy June 37th practically all the mag- 

 gots had transformed. On July 4th two flies emerged in one of the vials, and a 

 week later it was found that flies had emerged from nearly all the pupae, both in 

 the vials and in the breeding cage. These flies appeared to be identical with those 

 taken in the fields near Ridgetown. In order to make certain as to their identifi- 

 cation some of the flies taken in the field and some of those bred in the vials were 

 sent to Professor Coquillett of Washington, who identified both lots as Pegomya 

 fusciceps, the adult of the seed corn or bean maggot. 



5 E.S. 



