53 



them further, but insufficient facilities for doing so prevented. There 

 was, however, plenty of evidence that the insect ma}' winter in either 

 the larval or pupal stages. A single specimen was reared at the 

 Department in Washington from a stalk of wheat received from Mr, 

 J. G. Kingsbury, editor of the Indiana Farmer, the fly appearing 

 eTune 18. In this case the maggot was in the straw above the upper 

 joint, and the wheat head was evidentl}^ killed l)y its attack. From all 

 of these facts it seems that its life cycle may be about as follows: It maj- 

 winter over in the field either in the larval or pupal stage, the adults 

 emerging in May. From the presence of larva? in the stems of wheat 

 and grass from which adults have afterwards been reared it would 

 appear that there is a brood of flies emerging in June and eluly, much 

 as in Meromyza americana, which lay their eggs in grass and volunteer 

 grain; another brood of flies resulting in September and October 

 whose offspring hibernate as previous!}^ stated, there being, as in 

 Meromj^za, three broods each j^ear, from six weeks to two months being 

 required for the insect to pass through its development during the 

 summer months. 



FOOD PLANTS. 



1 have reared these flies only from wheat, probabh' because I have 

 made no special effort to rear them from an}^ other plant. Doctor 

 Fletcher has reared the species ivova Agropyron canhmm^ A. ieneruin, 

 A. repens^ Poa pratensh^ and Elymus canadensis." 



placp: and method of oviposition. 



I have observed oviposition only among small wheat plants, but 

 presume that the methods employed in such cases do not differ from 

 those where the food plant is some of the grasses. The object on the 

 part of the female seems to be to place her eggs low down on the plant, 

 as near the root as possible and along the enveloping edge of the 

 sheath. The ver}- young larva? are always to be found in this situa- 

 tion, and the edges of the enveloping bases of the leaves are always 

 ragged and discolored in infested plants. 



NATURE of the INJURY. 



The young maggot on hatching from the fig,g feeds along the thin 

 edge of the lower base of the enfolding leaf where it is white, juicy, 

 and tender. It seems to make no effort at first to reach the central 

 portion of the plant, seeming to know that that part will remain ten- 

 der and succulent, but gradually works its wa}^ inward and upward to 

 a point just below where the central spindle-shaped unfolding leaf 

 leaves the ensheathing portion of the next older one, the exact locality 

 seeming to be decided upon according to the toughness of this central 



"Experimental Farms Reports, 1890, p. 158. 



