402 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 10 



ment from the maggot stage. Specimens captured in this way were 

 desired by the writer for study, but the arrangements failed to be 

 carried out. 



However, adult flies collected in and near the eoldframes on March 

 6, and reared ones maturing on March 26-31, from infested material 

 consisting of earth and pea sprouts, potato tubers and cotton seeds, 

 filled expectation of the species being Pegomyiafusciceps Zett. 



Destruction of Other Potato Plantings 



As a matter of previous record concerning the same insect, a com- 

 plaint of damage to seed potatoes, accompanied by a sample of the 

 tubers showing infested condition, was received from Valverda, Pointe 

 Coupee parish. La., bearing the date of March 19, 1913. The sender 

 stated that the tubers had been planted during the month before, the 

 planting having been begun on the 18th. The fields thus planted 

 comprised about 20 acres in the Triumph variety and 5 acres in the 

 Irish Cobbler. All of the seed stock had been obtained from Maine 

 and it had arrived in excellent shape. However, it was treated with 

 formalin; and as far as could be seen, germinated nicely. A good 

 many little sprouts duly appeared above ground but were nipped by a 

 frost on March 16. 



Upon examining the propagating tubers on the day as noted by 

 letter, every piece of potato without exception that the planter then 

 dug up w^as found by him to be infested and practically spoiled by small 

 maggots. He further asserted that the same enemy had occurred 

 during past years in considerable numbers on seed potatoes, but not 

 to the extent of spoiling them. As a large part of his present plantings 

 had been made on land that had never produced potatoes, he was at a 

 loss to account for the general prevalence of the foe. It operated just as 

 numerously on the plantings in such land as on others in ground where 

 a potato crop had been grown before. The fields were said to have been 

 well drained, the soil having remained loose and in good tilth even 

 after the heavy rains of the preceding week. 



While acknowledging that the damage done at the time left little 

 hope for a crop worth cultivating, yet the grower asked for informa- 

 tion about remedies and also desired to know if any similar case where 

 the prospective growth had been ruined had ever come to the attention 

 of the writer or his agricultural associates. No satisfactory advice 

 could then be given in reply since the injuries under such circumstances 

 presented a subject concerning which no dealings had been experienced 

 in Louisiana and but scant enlightenment was available. As was 

 shown by the sample, decay had followed the attacks by the maggots 

 until the combined ravages by both agents had greatly reduced the sup- 

 ply of nutriment in the parent stock. 



