210 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



During an absence of several days (Aug. 15-25) from Middleburgh, 

 where these collectious were made, a number of the flies emerged 

 within the covered boxes in which the larvffi had pupated, and on my 

 return they were found dead and badly injured by tlie mold that had 

 attacked them and partially encased them in earth. From the material 

 taken from the box at this time, the best portion of which was laid 

 aside for subsequent examination, I am able to distinguish five males 

 and three females of the above species, but from their poor condition, 

 they can only serve the purpose of verification of the above description. 

 This species was therefore obtained in larger number from the mined 

 beet-leaves than either of the two others. 



This species also oc^irs, in similar depredations in Central New 

 York. Beet-leaves, in Morrisville, were observed during the summer 

 to be extensively mined, and it was thought that the insect infesting 

 them had caused si'cknessin several instances in persons who had eaten 

 them for "greens." Through the kindness of Professor J. 11. Corn- 

 stock, in submitting to me three examples of Antliomyiidce which he 

 reared from the puparia of some of the leaf-miners sent to him, I am 

 able to recognize this species, and as it happens to be a female, to give 

 herewith its distinctive features : — 



Female P. vicixa. In color paler than the male, approaching an 

 ash shade. The frontal band of the head is whitish, equal in width 

 to one-third the diameter of the head, with six black bristles in each 

 lateral margin, of whicli the three upper ones are directed outwardly, 

 and the three lower inwardly. The body is narrowly oval, and its hairs 

 are shorter than of the male ; the terminal segment bears at its tip a 

 transverse row of six long black bristles. 



The puparium (as per notes of Professor Comstock placed in my 

 hands) was received, with three others, July 25,1881, and was believed 

 to have transformed the previous day. It gave out the fly on August 

 16th, making a pupal period of twenty-two days. 



A feature in the venation of this species which distinguishes it from 

 other of its associated species examined by me, is the great constriction 

 of cell a (shown in Fig. G2) at the point of thickening of the vein be- 

 low it (the 1st longitudinal). In the other example of the male in my 

 possession, the cell beyond this point toward the base, is quite obliter- 

 ated — the two veins being contiguous. 



The work of these leaf-miners was also observed by me during the 

 present year, at Bennington, Vt., in a single garden, while it was not 

 found in other gardens where search was made for them. Infested 

 leaves were gathered and a few puparia obtained, but, as they did not 

 produce the fly, the species could not be determined — these Antho- 

 myiee puparia showing but few features of specific value. 



