ANT 



[52] 



ANT 



once detected ; but if the onion is older 

 the grubs are often numerous. In both 

 cases they will be found feeding on the 

 very heart of the onion. The grub varies 

 from about a quarter to half an inch 

 long, is fleshy, shining, whitish, cylin- 

 drical, tapering from the head to the tail, 

 and divided into twelve segments. The 

 pores through which it breathes are yel- 

 low, and in the first segment. In about 

 throe weeks from the time of being 

 hatched it changes into a chesnut-colour- 

 ed, oval puparium, or case, within which 

 is the real pupa. From this, in about a 

 fortnight, the perfect fly comes forth, of 

 the size of the cross lines, and appearing 

 as magnified in our drawing. This is 

 the female, and is entirely of a pale ashy 

 colour, covered with black bristles. The 

 male has a black line down the middle 

 of the abdomen. The antenna? and legs 

 are black ; the wings are transparent, 

 almost colourless, but irridescent pink 

 and green. The female inserts her eggs 

 within the leaf sheaths of the onion, close 

 to the ground. She continues to lay her 

 eggs from May to September, producing 

 several broods during that period. The 

 latest brood remains in the pupa state 

 through the winter, so that all old decay- 

 ing store onions should be burnt up as 

 spring advances. The best preventive of 

 this grub is to sprinkle gas-lime between 

 the rows of seeding- onions its fumes 

 being offensive to the fly. It may be 

 well, also, to try spreading powdered 

 charcoal among them in a similar way, 

 for the fly is said to deposit her eggs in 

 this powder as readily as in the onion 

 plants. 



A. brassica, cabbage fly, says Mr. 

 Curtis, is found through the summer, 

 and is the parent of a maggot which has 



been known to lay waste whole fields of 

 cabbages by diseasing the roots on which 

 they feed, as well as at the base of the 

 stalk:. Successive generations are feed- 

 ing until November ; the latter families 

 lying in the pupa state through the win- 

 ter, and most probably some of the flies 

 survive that season, secreted in holes and 

 crevices. When the cabbage-leaves as- 

 sume a lead or yellow colour, and droop 

 in mid-day from the eflect of the sun, 

 such plants being diseased, should be 

 taken up, carried away, and burnt, and 

 brine or lime put into the holes. Gar- 

 deners, in some instances, have collected 

 large quantities of the pup 33 from the 

 roots by drawing away the earth. 



The male of A. brassicae is dark bright 

 grey, with black bristles ; there is a 

 black stripe half way down the middle 

 of the thorax, and a curved one on each 

 side ; the body has a more decided black 

 stripe down the centre, and the segments 

 are marked by a line of the same colour ; 

 legs and antennae blackish ; wings a little 

 smoky. The female is pale ashy grey ; 

 the eyes remote, with a dark chestnut- 

 coloured stripe on the crown ; the wings 

 are similar in tint to those of the fore- 

 going species, but the insects are con- 

 siderably smaller. Gardener's Chronicle. 

 A. lactucce, lettuce fly. Mr. Curtis 

 says the larvae make their appearance in 

 August, but are abundant in September ; 

 they closely resemble those from the cab- 

 bage and turnips, being of a yellowish 

 white colour, tapering towards the head, 

 which is pointed, and armed with two 

 short black claws at the nose. These 

 maggots live in the involucra of different 

 varieties of lettuce*, feeding upon the 

 seeds and receptacle ; and when these 

 are consumed they wriggle themselves 

 out backward, either to enter another 

 seed-vessel or fall to the ground and 

 become pupa?. 



When the seed-stems arc gathered and 

 dying, the larvae change to pupae, called 

 ucks in Surrey, being bright chestnut- 

 coloured, oval cases, which are rough 

 when examined under a lens, with two 

 minute tubercles at the head, and two 

 hooks and a few other tubercles at the 

 tail. In the course of May a few of the 

 pupoa hatch ; they have, however, been 

 observed as early as April, and as late as 



