TURNIP AND CABBAGE GNAT MIDGE. 149 
believe. The Turnip Seed Weevil, or, rather, the larva of it, was also 
very destructive this season; but I know it by the puncture it leaves 
in the pod where it escapes.“ The pest is most common on the 
Yellow Turnip, but I found it also on the Swede, and on Scotch Kale.” 
The larve sent by Mr. Sim agreed with the descriptions of that of 
C. brassice in size, colour, and texture. 
On October 19th Mr. Sim sent me the following additional notes 
on the Turnip seed pest :— ; 
‘‘T had seed Turnips in several places; the worst attack was on 
‘Yellow Bullock,’ in a piece of ground that had grown the same 
variety for some years in succession. I first noticed the pest on 
July 7th this year. The unaffected seed was ripe about a fortnight 
afterwards. The seed-pods attacked by this pest had much the same > 
appearance as those that were attacked by the larve of the Turnip 
Seed Weevils. Although each species were equally destructive, each 
kind kept to their respective seed-pod. 
‘“‘ With the object of trying to breed the insects, I put some of the 
maggots in a flower-pot, along with a handful of fine mould, which I 
made sterile by pouring boiling water on it, so as to prevent mistakes. 
I put a’cloth over the vessel to keep all insects prisoners; but though 
I looked in now and then, I never found any. When your letter 
reached me last week saying the larva belonged to the Cecidomyia 
tribe, I turned out the contents of the flower-pot on to a white paper, 
and went over it carefully with a hand-magnifier. The result was 
three midge-like insects, which I have no doubt are the real depre- 
dators, but I fear they are too much mutilated to identify. I think 
they had been hatched and dead before I thought of looking for 
them.’’—(W. 8.) 
These specimens were certainly Guat Midges (Cecidomyie, scienti- 
fically), and though, as Mr. Sim observes, they were so much injured 
as to make identification difficult, still, judging by the neuration and 
other characteristics of the wings, and the colour of some of the parts 
that would not change after death, and some other points, specified 
below, I did not think that the infestation could be any other than 
that of C. brassice. 
The following extract from ‘ Die Pflanzen-feinde,’ of J. H. Kalten- 
bach, p. 84, gives the main points of the appearance of the larva, or 
maggot, and its history, shortly and clearly :— 
‘ Cecidomyia brassice, Winn.—The larve live, according to Winnertz, 
* In Curtis’s account of ‘‘ The Turnip Seed Weevil, Ceutorhynchus assimilis, 
Payk.”’ (see ‘Farm Insects,’ p. 103), he particularly notices this point—that on 
splitting a pod with a small hole in it open, “‘it appeared that the hole had been 
made by a maggot in order to effect its exit. Three pods were also forwarded to 
me, each being punctured,” &c.—(J. C.) 
