INSECTS INFESTING THE GRAPE. 205 



the vines previous to this, and enters the earth to the depth of 

 a few inches, where it forms a small cavity in Avhich it shortly 

 afterwards assumes the pupa form. The beetle issues in the 

 Fall, and passes the Winter in some sheltered place. The 

 perfect beetle is nearly hemispherical in outline, and of a 

 black color, but is covered with short appressed scale-like 

 white hairs, which give it a grayish tinge ; the legs are red- 

 dish, and on the upper and outer edge of each fore and mid- 

 dle shank (tibia) is a rectangular tooth. The body measures 

 about one line in length. I have not found this species in 

 this State. 



CHAPTER CXXI. 



The Grape-seed Maggot. (Cal) 



( Tsosoma vitis. — Saunders. ) 



Order, Hymenopteka ; Family, Chalcidid.e. 



[Living within the seeds of grapes; a minute footless 

 maggot.] 



This maggot (Fig. 193) burrows into the grape while the 

 covering of the seeds are still soft and tender ; it makes its way 

 directly to the seed, which it enters and feeds upon the kernel- 

 It undergoes its transformations within the seed, and the fly, 

 when about to issue, gnaws its way out. 



Fig. 193. — Grape-seed Maggot — color, 

 whitish. 



The perfect fly is })lack, and the fore- 

 wings expand about one line. Only one 

 brood is usually produced in a year, and 

 these pass the Winter in the larva state. 



Mr. Charles A. Wetmore, Chief Executive Viticultural Offi- 

 cer, called my attention to the larva found in the seed of the 

 California wild grape, from which I bred the fly, and found it 

 to be the Isofioma r/7y'.s. I do not know of any cultivated grape 

 l)eing infested by this pest, but close attention should be given 

 to examinations lest it gains a foothold. 



Remedies. — Should this pest spread to the cultivated varie- 



