1897.] NARCISSUS FLY 157 



December 4, 1897. 



Many thanks for the supply of galls, which I shall duly 

 send to the Professor, and I earnestly hope that he will not 

 infest Hungary with them ! The consignment came to 

 hand from him yesterday evening, but it is in the form 

 of shoots as cuttings, so I now send you about half 

 in a registered letter. If the pieces root properly I 

 should think it would be best to plant them amongst the 

 infested currants as they are so few it would not be much 

 trouble and there is just a chance that they may be mite- 

 proof. I do not myself (much as I regret it) think that 

 there is any safety in washes and that sort of treatment, 

 but as I write the idea comes into my mind whether, as 

 with us, the Ribes rubrum (red currant) seems mite-proof 

 anything could be done by grafting black on red. Would 

 they graft ? or is my idea quite chimerical ? The black 

 currant shoots are var. " bang-up," which suggests England 

 as their original country. 



I do not know whether you have to do with importing 

 apple fruit, but I see from Dr. Fletcher's (Canadian) 

 Entomological Report that there is a newly observed fruit 

 maggot in, I think (without special reference), the District 

 of Columbia. 



December 17, 1897. 



I cannot be sure of your bulb attack without developing 

 the fly, but I should conjecture that the mischief was most 

 likely caused by the Narcissus fly. This is now known as 

 the Merodon narcissi, Fab., but from the varieties in colour 

 to which it is subject, I believe it has been known under all 

 the following specific names : ephippium, transversalis, nobilis, 

 constant, ferruginens, flavicans, and eqnestris. 



It is a fair-sized two-winged fly, and appears to be (in 

 grub state) a severe plague to Narcissus and Daffodil 

 growers in Holland, &c., especially in bulbs imported from 

 the South of Europe. 



In Verrall's list of British Diptera I only find one species 

 of Merodon named and that is eqnestris, which on the 

 principle mentioned on the preceding page, might be 

 synonymous with all the other (?) species. The grubs feed 

 in Narcissus and Daffodil bulbs and turn to chrysalides in 

 the ground, but I do not find anywhere that there is any 

 known remedial measure. It seems to me that the only 

 way if a bed were much infested would be literally to trench 

 it, and so turn down the chrysalides. You do not men- 

 tion whether your bulbs are home grown. If they are 



