198 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ment, either of its occurrence, distribution, or habits, beyond a simple 

 mention of it as injurious to radishes (Report for 1872, p. 134). In 

 his " MS. Notes from my Journal," a few copies of which were litho- 

 graphed for private distribution, some references to writers are given (p. 

 3). Professor Riley's Reports contain no notice of it. Dr. Packard refers 

 the species to Anthomyia radicum, of Europe, and records its frequent 

 occurrence in early-sown radishes in Maine, where the plants were 

 sometimes killed by it. 



A Doubtful Species. 



While we still retain A. raphani among our list of depredators on 

 the radish, it is uncertain whether it is distinct from the European 

 species described by Liunjeus, in 1761, as Musca radicum. The type is 

 probably not in existence, as it is not contained in the Harris collec- 

 tion in the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History. There 

 are no specimens of it among the AnthomyiidcB of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology at Cambridge. Mr. Meade, of England, in reply to 

 inquiries made of him, informs me that he has not seen and does not 

 know the species. A single specimen of it, labeled by Dr. Fitch, is 

 in the collection of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, but in too 

 poor condition for satisfactory comparison.* 



There is, in favor of the identity of the two species, in addition to 

 their qualified identity stated by Dr. Fitch, the fact that an example 

 of A. radicum Linn., was found by Mr. Meade in the collections of 

 North American AntlwmyiidcB sent to him for examination from the 

 Cambridge Museum : the particular locality is not indicated [Canad. 

 Entomol'., xiii, p. 48, no. 52). 



Remedies and Preventives. 



At the State Agricultural College of Michigan, experiments were 

 made with tobacco-water, superphosphate, and gas-lime, upon alternate 

 rows of radishes, hoping that the effect might be, by means of a vile 

 odor, to prevent the flies from laying their eggs. These applications 

 were all failures, f The earth was partially removed from the roots 

 and salt thrown in and covered up, but to no purpose. Boiling water 

 was poured upon the roots, and when the larvae were not too deep in 

 the ground, this was effectual, but was not accounted a successful 



*A difference is shown in the neuration, which, could it be sustained by other examples, 

 would be of no little importance in the separation of these closely allied forms. The two 

 longitudinal veins 3 and 4 do not converge at the margin, as in most of the allied species, 

 and the binder transverse vein (9) is more conspicuously angulated at the middle than in 

 any other of the Antbomise before me (resembling in these features Pegomyia oicina, bere- 

 iuafter described). 



+It does not appear from the statement, that the applications were made before the first 

 flies had come abroad for the deposit of their eggs. 



