, gular; above these four on each side at about equal aeons e 
upper pair, one on each side, are slender and more distant from each 
other. Of the remaining three on each side the middle ones are on the — 4 
margin of the tr uncation, but the other two are nearer the anterior mar- 
gin of the segment, and may easily be overlooked. On the ventral sur- ae 
face of the segment are four more; two distant ones just behind the 4 
anal prominence, and two placed close together in the concavity just 
in front of the large middle pair of the marginal series. 
The posterior stigmata are situated on a pair of flat-topped tawny — =a 
tubercles lying near each other, a little above the center of the trunca- 
tion. There are three slits on each tubercle, radiating outwardly from cee. 
a point near the inner margin. eee 
Puparium. (Plate Tih Fig. 7.) —The puparium is shorter and ~ 
thicker than the larva, being four to five mm. long and about 1.5 broad. 
It is fusiform, about equally and narrowly rounded at each end and 
reddish brown in color. The first two segments of the larval skin form 
a dark rugose convexity between the two anterior spiracles, which are — 
as in the larva. The posterior tubercles are all present, but shrunken, 
surrounding the posterior stigmata, which become a little more promi-_ 
nent. 
Imago. (Plate IIl., Fig. 1. )—The following is the description Se 
the female as pale by Dr. Riley: 
“Length 0.20 finch (5 mm.) ], alar expanse 0.38 [inch (9.5 mm.) ]. 
Antenne black; style microscopically pubescent; front, fulvous, with a 
distinct, rather narrow, brownish cinereous margin; face and orbits 
brownish white; palpi and proboscis black; ocellar area somewhat — 
heart-shaped : thorax and abdomen pale yellow-brownish cinereous, with — 
minute black points at the insertion of the bristles; thorax with an in-— 
distinct middle stripe of brown; legs black, tinted with cinereous ; poisers 
pale ochre-yellow; scales small, the upper valve larger ue the lower.” 
THE BLACH-HEADED GRASS MAGGOT. 
(Sciara sp.) 
(Plate III., Fig. 3-7.) : 
When the spring is cool and wet after corn-planting, so that the 
softened seed lies long in the ground without sprouting, this is especial- 
ly liable to certain kinds of injury; and it is under these conditions 
that the black-headed maggot seems most likely to affect it injuriously. 
Rotting grain is, indeed, undoubtedly preferred by this insect, but it 
has occasionally been seen to infest kernels which had begun to grow. 
It lives normally in old sod, feeding chiefly, or perhaps altogether, on 
decaying vegetation there, and will be found in noticeable numbers in 
corn fields only where the field was in grass the preceding year. These 
maggots penetrate and hollow out the kernel, often leaving nothing 
more than an empty hull. <A score or more of them may infest a single 
grain. 
They are also frequently noticed in rich garden ground and among 
potted plants, where they are accused by gardeners of eating the roots 
and hollowing out the bulbs. / # 4 
a , +e 
