200 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST, 



the year 18G8, in the month of June, by Mr. A. S. Fuller, where it 

 was found as a small white worm eating into and excoriating the 

 surface of seed-corn after its sprouting. In several localities in New 

 Jersey it destroyed the seed-corn, but since that time, its injuries have 

 not been reported, nor has it as yet been discovered in the State of 

 New York. From the rapid increase in numbers and the great multi- 

 plication in certain seasons, which the species of this family show, it 

 is liable at any time to become, over a wide area, a serious check upon 

 corn growing, and it is therefore important that our agriculturists 

 should have such a knowledge of its appearance and habits as to en- 

 able them to detect its presence. 



No description has yet been given of the larval form which will per- 

 mit of comparison with allied species. Fig. 55 after Kiley, represents 

 A its appearance, as enlarged, with a line showing 



/*^^^f^'¥fTiiy ^ ^''^ natural size. It is described as " a footless 



"^^M^dMM^ maggot, measuring 0.25 to 0.30 of an inch, of a 



' 1 yellowish-white color, blunt at the posterior and 



Fig 55. — Larva and pu- tapering at the anterior end." Its manner of 

 rxZviA'zVr'"""^^' feeding upon the corn is similar to that of the 

 larvte of- the Onion-fly, and is represented in 

 Fig. 56. When the corn is injured to this ex- 

 tent, the young shoots die, and the kernels 

 decay. The larvae eat rapidly and soon attain 

 their growth, when they contract into a light- 

 brown puparium, shown at h, similar to the Fig. 5(3.— Corn as eaten by 



ii • 4? ii ,r. Tv, f,.^v^ /^r./% TtT^^l^ the larva of Anthomtia ZE^a:. 



other species of the genus. In irom one week; 



to two weeks thereafter, the fly makes its appearance. Whether there 

 are subsequent broods of the species during the summer, and whether 

 in the absence of seed-corn which it may feed on, it attacks some other 

 plant, has not been ascertained. 



The following is a description of the fly as given by Professor Eiley: — 

 Length 0.20 inch (5 mm) ; alar expanse 0.38 inch (9.5 mm). Antennae black ; 

 ptyle microscopically pubescent ; front, fulvous, with a distinct, rather narrow, 

 brownish, cinereous margin ; face and orbits brownish-white ; palpi and probos- 

 cis black ; ocellar area somewhat heart-shaped ; thorax and abdomen pale yellow- 

 brownish cinereous, with minute black points at the insertion of the bristles; 

 thorax with an indistinct middle stripe of brown ; legs black, tinted with cinere- 

 ous ; poisers pale ochre-yellow ; scales small, the upper valve larger than the 

 lower. 



This species was referred to the genus Anthomyia upon characters 

 observed in two examples of the female sex, which would scarcely 

 afford the material for positive generic reference. Baron Osten Sacken 

 has, in his catalogue, jolaced it in the genus Anthomyia provisionally. 

 The specific name of zeas originally given to it, has recently been modi- 

 fied by the author into zecB (see references above). 



