[17] 



Report of the State Entomologist. 



113 



-Channel made by the 



Evidence of the attack, if the skin be removed, may be discovered 

 on its inner or flesh side early in the winter. Within a small swelling 

 at the lower portion of the hide, the larval insect — "maggot," as it is 

 usually called — very small in size and of a blood-red color, may be 

 discovered lying free at the bottom of a 

 fine channel, shown in Fig. 4, leading down 

 to it, but not traceable to the outer sur- 

 face. The small swellings develoj^ into 

 " warbles," which are formed with the 

 growth of the larva as early as in February, 



occasionally in January, and may be found ^. „„„^„^ 



at this time with an ojDen passage leading ^^ warble larva through the 

 outwardly on the hide. The larva is white ormerr)'' '"'"^''- '^"" 

 and worm-like in form and appearance. In its next stage of develop- 

 ment it is club-shaped, and in its following stage it assumes its well- 

 known shape, with its thick and prickly skin, lying within the warble 

 cell with its membranous walls.* 



Some very interesting changes take place in the pair of spiracles or 

 breathing-pores in which the abdomen of the larva terminates, in that 

 ^^^ while in their eai'ly stage they are 

 elongated and somewhat club-shaped, 

 horny, and adapted to the boring ser- 

 vice that they have to render, later 

 they become flat and kidney-shaped 

 disks which undergo two or three sub- 

 sequent modifications before they attain 

 their final phase. 



The larva, at maturity, is shown in 



la^rva enll^ged!^^g^^"^.« ^ ^^^ ^' ^^ P^'^fer to call 

 ( After Verriii.) it by its scientific designation, which 



should be understood by all, rather than by the ^f •« -The larva 

 ... . '' enlarged. (After 



repulsive name (from association) of " maggot," Ormerod.) 



although the latter properly belongs, in common usage, to the larva 



of a fly, as that of " grub " does to the corresponding stage of a 



beetle. 



At its full growth it is about an inch in length, oval, somewhat 



flattened, and varying in color from whitish to dark gray. It shows 



a number of deeply incised segments (ten can easily be distinguished) 



and many rings of minute spines or prickles, which aid materially the 



*For a valuable paper on the larva of this and other species of the family, see a trans- 

 lation from Friedrieh Brauer's " Monographie der oestriden," Wien, 1863, contained in 

 Fsyche, iv, 1885, pp. 305-310. 



15 



