407 



solid parts. Ou pages 19 to 21 of his Seventh Annual Report as State 

 Entomologist of Illinois, Prof. S. A. Forbes gives an interesting account 

 of an undetermined species of Sciara, the larv;e of which feed upon the 

 interior portion of newly planted kernels of corn, and also attack the 

 roots and bulbs of various kinds of flowering plants. 



Several reports of injury to growing potatoes by larvre of this kind 

 have also api)eared from time to time, but beyond this, and the 

 instances alluded to above, no other injury to cultivated plants by 

 these larva^ in this country has come to our notice, although in France, 

 as long ago as the year 1813, Olivier is reported to have reared three 

 different species of Sciara from wheat. The writer has not been able 

 to examine the original account of this rearing, but from the fact that 

 none of the later authors have mentioned the names of the species 



Fig. 48. — Sciara tritici: a, larva; b, iicwlv foinit'd ])upa, from below; c, s-.tiae later from .side; d, 

 adult female — greatly enlarged ; e, female genitalia; /, male genitalia — still more enlarged (original). 



bred by Olivier, it is very probable that they were neither identified 

 nor described in such a manner as to render their future recognition 

 po.ssible. 



Observations made several years ago at the insectaiy of the Depart- 

 ment indicate that even in our own country the larvae of at least one 

 s])ecies of Sciara are also destructive to young wheat plants. On March 

 17, 1885, a large number of adults issued from a jar containing plants 

 of this kind that had attained a height of from G to 8 inches. They 

 already indicated an unhealthy growth by a more or less yellowish 

 appearance, and an examination of their roots revealed the fact that 

 these had been severely injured by the larvse, many of which were still 

 present and were observed to feed upon the roots and interior of the 

 stems both below the surface of the soil as well as in the interior of the 

 stems a short distance above the surface. As many as eight larv<e 

 were sometimes found in one of the stems, and they had also pene- 

 trated the kernels of wheat from which the plants sprang; many of 



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