MAIZE FLY. 



137 



Ground weevils of three species attack the young canes and are best 

 checked by sowing maize or sorghum with the canes, to supply them with 

 other food. Leaf-eating caterpillars eat the leaves of cane but are not of 

 any importance. Three mealy bugs (page 245) are found on cane and 

 may do a small amount of damage in the aggregate but are checked by 

 sowing only clean seed canes. 



The Maize Fly. 1 



A small dark-coloured insect, not unlike a large aphis, is found 

 in the sheathing leaves of maize and sorghum. The insects are active, 

 running crab like with a sideways motion and leaping away when 

 disturbed. 



Eggs are laid in the tissues of the plant, a cut being made in 

 the leaf and the eggs deposited in the cut with a coating of white 

 secretion. 



The young are active, grey brown in colour, running in the heart of 



the plant. Large colo- 

 nies of all ages are found 

 in infested plants. They 

 feed by extracting the 

 juice from the tissues of 

 the plant. Young sor- 

 ghum plants are affected 

 as well as maize. The 

 insect is not a pest to 

 field cultivation of 

 maize in large areas, 

 but to plots of maize 

 grown where the crop is 

 not a staple. It weakens 

 exotic and unhealthy 

 plants, and is one of the 

 minor pests so common in experimental cultivation. It is allied to the 

 cane-fly of the West Indies, an insect with similar habits which attacks 

 arcane. 



Numbers of these insects are found in grass lands, being one of a 

 large group of common sucking insects which are generally restricted to 

 their wild food-plants. As a rule no remedy is needed beyond the simple 

 one of dropping ashes or lime and kerosene into the heart of the plant to 



1 4. Delphax psyllotdes. Leth. (Fulgoridse.) 



FIG. 155. 



Maize Fly. n, Imago, b, c, d, Young. e, Egg. 

 Antenna, g, h, k, Legs. (All magnified.} 



