MAIZE tLY. 



is? 



Ground weevils of three species attack the young canes and are best 

 cliccked by sowing" maize or sorg-hum with the canes, to supply them with 

 other food. Leaf-eating caterpillars eat the leaves of cane but are not of 

 any importance. Three mealy bugs (page 245) are found on cane and 

 may do a small amount of damage in the aggregate but are checked by 

 sowing only clean seed canes. 



The Maize Fly.i 



A small dark-coloured insect, not unlike a large aphis, is found 

 in the sheathing leaves of maize and sorg-hum. The insects are active 

 running crab like with a sideways motion and leaping away when 

 disturbed. 



Eggs are laid in the tissues of the plant, a cut being made in 

 the leaf and the eggs deposited in the cut with a coating of white 

 secretion. 



The young are active, grey brown in colour, running in the heart of 



the j)lant. Large colo- 

 nies of all ages are found 

 in infested plants. Tlaey 

 feed by extracting the 

 juice from the tissues of 

 the plant. Young sor- 

 ghum plants are affected 

 as well as maize. The 

 insect is not a pest to 

 field cultivation of 

 maize in large areas, 

 but to plots of maize 

 grown where the crop is 

 not a staple. It weakens 

 exotic and unhealthy 

 plants, and is one of the 

 minor pests so common in experimental cultivation. It is allied to the 

 cane-fly of the West Indies, an insect with similar habits which attacks 

 sugarcane. 



Numbers of these insects are found in grass lands, being one of a 

 large group of common sucking insects which are generally restricted to 

 their wild food-plants. As a rule no remedy is needed beyond the simple 

 one of dropping ashes or lime and kerosene into the heart of the plant to 



' 4. Belphax psylloides. Leth. (Fulgoridae.) 



Fia. 155. 

 Maize Fly. n, Imago. b, c, d, Young. e, Egg. 

 Antenna, g, h, k, Legs. (All magnijied.) 



f. 



