458 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



red color." Mr. Tilghman was correct in supposing that the 

 eggs would hatch in less than fifteen days, under favorable 

 circumstances ; for, if the weather be warm, they commonly 

 hatch in four days after they are laid. 



The maggots, when they first come out of the shells, are of 

 a pale red color. Forthwith they crawl down the leaf, and 

 work their way between it and the main stalk, passing down- 

 wards till they come to a joint, just above which they remain, 

 a little below the surface of the ground, with the head towards 

 the root of the plant. Having thus fixed themselves upon the 

 stalk, they become stationary, and never move from the place 

 till their transformations are completed. They do not eat the 

 stalk, neither do they penetrate within it, as some persons 

 have supposed, but they lie lengthwise upon its surface, cov- 

 ered by the lower part of the leaves, and are nourished wholly 

 by the sap, which they appear to take by suction. They soon 

 lose their reddish color, turn pale, and will be found to be 

 clouded with whitish spots; and through their transparent 

 skins a greenish stripe may be seen in the middle of their 

 bodies. As they increase in size, and grow plump and firm, 

 they become imbedded in the side of the stem, by the pressm-e 

 of their bodies upon the growing plant. One maggot thus 

 placed seldom destroys the plant; but, when two or three are 

 fixed in this manner around the stem, they weaken and im- 

 poverish the plant, and cause it to fall down, or to wither and 

 die. They usually come to their full size in five or six weeks, 

 and then measure about three twentieths of an inch in length. 

 Their skin now gradually hardens, becomes brownish, and 

 soon changes to a bright chestnut color. This change usually 

 happens about the first of December. 



The insect, in this form, has been commonly likened to a 

 flax-seed. Hence " many observers speak of this as the flax- 

 seed state." Others regard it as the beginning of the pupa 

 state, wherein the condition of the insect is analogous to the 

 immature pupa {hoiih allongie) of common flies. Such in- 

 deed has been my own impression concerning it ; and even so 

 it seems to have been regarded by JNIr. Herrick, although he 

 was well aware of the actual form of the insect included 



