December, '14] McGREGOR: COTTON LEAF-MINER 447 



depth of forty-three inches, with fiftj^-five larvae, 72 per cent reached 

 maturity. 



It must be understood that the larvae reared in these cages were 

 usually a half or more grown before collected, usually remaining in 

 the cages from two to five months before they were ready to pupate. 



The best type of cage for this purpose seems to be the Tower cage 

 sunk into the earth, but wooden boxes with gauze bottoms are perhaps 

 equally as good and are much less expensive. Flower pots would be 

 the third choice. Good drainage seems the essential factor from the 

 standpoint of the cage. 



THE SERPENTINE LEAF-MINER ON COTTON 

 By E. A. McGregor, Bureau of Entomology 



In the course of the investigations of cotton insects at Batesburg, 

 S. C, made by the writer^ during the seasons of 1911, 1912 and 1913, 

 a number of interesting notes have been made on the serpentine leaf- 

 miner of cotton. The insect is a Dipteron, Agromijza scutellata Fallen, 

 belonging to the family Agromyzidae. A general account, under the 

 name A. pusilla, was recently published by Webster and Parks. The 

 present paper deals more particularly with the species as an enemy of 

 cotton and is, therefore, supplementary to the recent paper by Webster 

 and Parks in the Journal of Agricultural Research. 



This species has been identified by Mr. W. R. Walton of the Bureau 

 of Entomology and A. L. Melander of Washington Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station as A. scutellata Fallen, and by Mr. J. R. Malloch 

 as A. pusilla Meigen. Mr. Melander considers pusilla a synon^mi 

 of scutellata after making a thorough study of his own and IVIr. IVIal- 

 loch's material. 



The species is by no means peculiar to cotton. In the United 

 States it has been bred from quite a number of diff"erent hosts, repre- 

 senting fourteen families of spermatophytes as shown in the accom- 

 panying table: 



1 Both in the field observation and in the work incident to the breeding oper- 

 ations Mr. F. L. McDonough, of the Bureau of Entomology, was of substantial 

 assistance to the -WTiter. 



