That this species is not confined to pollen for its larval food, but that 

 it feeds also upon the leaves, and apparently exclusively upon the leaves 

 in Florida, was discovered nearly a year later by one of our agents, Mr. 

 Ashmead, who describes his observations as follows : 



" On May the 30th maoy of the puparia were found attached to the 

 upper surface of the leaves of corn and, near the base of the leafstalk, 

 in Col. L. W. Spratt's garden near Jacksonville. During that night 

 and days subsequently, flies hatched out in my breeding boxes, and also 

 some parasites. 



" On June 1, after a thorough search, I found the larvaj in quanti- 

 ties, some feeding on the corn at the base of the corn-leaf stalk, others 

 in soft discolored places in the stalk. 



" Cutting into these discolored soft places then and days afterwards, 

 with my knife, I discovered and obtained the larvse, some fully grown, 

 others not half grown, and watched them feed. They would elongate the 

 front segments as is usual with Syrphid larvse feeding on Plant-lice, pro- 

 trude and puncture the saccharine cells of the corn, and suck up the ex- 

 uding juice ; the operation could be plainly seen through the translucent 

 body walls of the larvae. 



"Parts of the stalk with these larvae were taken home and placed in 

 tin cans, to keep the stalk moist and prevent it from drying up ; as 

 the maggots matured they came forth, attached themselves to the stalk 

 or to the sides of the tin can, and transformed to puparia, from which 

 flies were afterwards obtained. 



"The whole transformation from egg to fly is completed within a 

 comparatively short period of less than three weeks. The egg hatches 

 in from three to four days ; the larva matures in from eight to ten days, 

 and the fly appears in from eight to thirteen days. 



" Its injuries. — While the larvae must undoubtedly afitect maturing 

 corn, yet the injury they do can not be great; no appreciable injury 

 was observed, and unless they increase and become much more abun- 

 dant than they are at present no serious damage may be apprehended 

 from their attacks by the grower." 



On the receipt of this information from Mr. Ashmead, we wrote him 

 of the New Jersey observations and directed him to verify his obser- 

 vations most carefully, noticing particularly whether the larvae did not 

 feed upon the pollen instead of, or as well as, the leaf and stalk. On re- 

 ceipt of these instructions he states that he went carefully over every 

 field of corn, examining the tassels for larvae, but could not find a single 

 individual feeding upon pollen. The flies were found upon the plants 

 in abundance and were observed to feed upon the pollen. 



Mr. Ashmead reared from the pupte of this insect three distinct para- 

 ites, which will be described in a future number. 



The descriptions of the Syrphus fly which immediately follow will 

 sufficiently enable its recognition in all stages. The early stages have 

 never before been described. 



