93 INSECTS IXJUHIOUS TO STAPLE CROPS. 



leathery texture. They are nearly C3^1iiidrical, somewhat 

 taj)ering in front and terminating bluntly behind. Legs 

 are entirely wanting, but at the blunt end are a few fleshy 

 processes and a pair of small, horny hooks. The larya3 

 seem to prefer low, moist ground, and will live for some 

 time on land entirely flooded or in a ditch. They feed 

 very largely on dead vegetable matter, but when excessively 

 abundant they attack the roots of wheat, grass, and clover, 

 so weakening them near the surface that the plants, 

 deprived of pro^^er nourishment, are killed and loosened 

 from the ground. 



Pup^e may be found during the latter 2^art of May, 

 occupying small cells near the surface of the soil in a 

 vertical position. Prior to emerging the adult pushes 

 from one-half to two-thirds of the body above the surface 

 and remains in this pose for several hours. The males 

 usually emerge first, as their assistance is required by the 

 females, which are loaded down with eggs, to extricate 

 themselves from the pupal skins. The sexes pair imme- 

 diately, there being many more males than females — one 

 observer states one hundred to one — and the females 

 deposit their eggs ujDon grass and clover lands, to the 

 number of three hundred each. Eggs are laid for another 

 brood in September, the maggots from which live over 

 winter. 



Remedies. — Injury to wheat land may be largely pre- 

 vented by plowing early in Se2:)tember. 



No satisfactory remedy for the maggots is known when 

 injuring clover, timothy, or grass, although large numbers 

 have been knoAvn to be destroyed by driving a flock of 

 sheep over infested land. Dr. S. A. Forbes states that 

 "close trampling of the earth by the slow passage of a 



