53 



HOP. 



Strig Maggot. Cecidoimjia, ? sp. 



Hop catkins, showing effect of infestation ; Strig Maggot, mag. ; nat. length given 



at page 55. 



The attack known as that of the Strig Maggot has long been 

 known of as causing much damage to the Hop-cone or catkin, but it 

 was only (so far as I can jBnd) in the past season that we have been 

 able to trace this attack with certainty to being caused by the larva of 

 a Cecidoimjia, or Gnat Midge, the maggots being therefore very nearly 

 allied to the well-known "Eed Maggot," which often causes much 

 damage to "Wheat. 



In 1882, notes were sent me by Mr. Goodwin from near Sevenoaks, 

 in which he mentioned that the attack had been very general in that 

 neighbourhood, and had ruined several pieces of Hops. He observed 

 that the " maggot pierces into, or rather is bred in, the ' strig ' or 

 stalk of the cone or flower, where it eats its way up the inside of the 

 stalk, which causes the Hops to wither and turn brown." One or two 

 maggots were the average number present, and in the early part of 

 September these were very numerous ; but later on. by Sept, 27th, 

 they had disappeared, and it was observed, " they drop out into the 

 earth after eating the Hops." Mr. E. Cooke, of Dethng, near Maid- 

 stone, also forwarded Hops similarly injured, observing that the 

 altered colour was from the attack of a maggot which burrowed in 

 the central stem, and that the infested Hops began to go off from the 

 tips, the stem which supported them dying back to the main branch. 



With all the specimens sent, however, I did not succeed in finding 

 a single maggot present ; therefore had no clue to the cause of the 



