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No. 63, Second Edition, 



lited States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OK ENTOMOLOGY, 



L. O. HOWARD. Entomologist. 



ROOT-MAGGOTS AND HOW TO CONTROL THEM. 



By F. H. Chittenden, 

 In Charf/c of Breeding Experiments. 



The roots of vegetable crop plants of many kinds are subject to the 

 destructive influence of maggots which injure them severelj^ during 

 certain seasons. Several forms of injurious root-maggots are recognized, 

 but of these there are three species which are much more destructive 

 than the others. The most important are the cabbage maggot and the 

 imported onion maggot, the former a specific enemy of cabbage and 



Fig. 1.— Seed-corn maggot {Pegomi/a fvseiceps): a, male fly, dorsal view; 6, female, lateral view; 

 e, head of female from above; d, larva, from side; e, anal segment of larva; f. anal spiracles; 

 fif, cephalic spiracles; h. piiparium— all much enlarged (author's illustration). 



other cole crops, the latter of the onion. A third species, the seed-corn 

 maggot, attacks the sprouting seeds of both onion and cole crops and of 

 a considerable variety of other plants, afterwards working into the roots 

 and stalks beneath the earth's surface. As the last-mentioned insect is 

 nearly omnipresent and omnivorous, it will receive first consideration. 

 These sijecies all belong to the genus Pegomya ( Pliorbiii) of the dipter- 

 ous family Anthoni\'iidu\ 



THE SEED-CORN MAGGOT. 



(Pfy/oiiif/ii fiisricf'ps Zott. ) 



Vegetable growers frequently lind that planted seed fails to develop, 

 and, on looking for the cause, discover a small white maggot which, from 

 early-observed occurrence on seed corn, has been termed the seed-corn 

 maggot. In more recent years it has often been associated with injuiy 

 to bean^;, whence another name, "bean fly." Many other vegetables 



