PACKARD.] THE RADISH SEED-WEEVIL. 763- 



from Curtis's " Farm Insects." Dr. Fitch regards our species {A. raphani 

 Harris) as identical " in every particular with the European A. radicum.''^ 

 In Europe it gnaws the roots of the turnip. The larvre appear in the 

 spring as soon as the radishes get partly grown. " When full-grown, 

 they change in the ground to reddish-brown pupae, similar to those of 

 the onion and cabbage maggots. The insect remains in this state two 

 or three weeks, when the fly hatches and crawls up out of the ground, 

 with its wings crumpled up, and climbing up the side of a clod or any 

 perpendicular surface which it finds, these members expand and assume 

 their proper form before they become dried and firm." (Fitch.) 



Description of larva. — The larva is 0.20 inch loug, elongating itself to 0.25 inch when 

 crawling. It is about three times as loug as thick, appeai'ing to be more short and 

 broad than larvaj of the onion-fly. It is white, shining, cylindrical, and tapering to a 

 point anteriorly, where the jaws appear under the skin as a short, black, m /vable line, 

 its anterior end wheu protruded forward becoming split, and then seen to be two 

 sharp hooks, which are curved downward, and wheu the animal is crawling these 

 hooks are pressed downward against the surface to aid in locomotion. The body is 

 divided by transverse lines into eleven or twelve segments, and when the head is ex- 

 serted thirteen segments can be counted. At the hind end of the back a pale, tawuy- 

 yellowish dorsal stripe is faintly visible. The hind end is abruptly cut off, obliquely 

 downward and slightly backward, forming a flat surface, having above its center two- 

 conspicuous spiracles, or elevated dots, their surface opaque and rugose, aud their color 

 sometimes tawny-yellow, sometimes black. This flattened hind end has a number of 

 small acute teeth around its outer margin, of which the two lower ones are thicker, of 

 a brownish color, and slightly notched or two-tootUed at their tips in the large but not 

 in the smaller young larvae. Above these on each side are three teeth, distant from 

 each othor, the middle one nearer to the upper than to the lower one. 



TAe^i.— In these radish-flies the two sexes difi"er materially. The 77ia?e is ash-gray 

 and very bristly ; the large compound eyes occupy most of the surface of the head and 

 are almost in contact upon thecr own. There are also three minute eyes at the base of 

 the crown. The face is silvery-gray, almost white in some reflections of the light, with 

 a long black streak on the forehead, which is pointed at its hind end. Below this- 

 streak are the black three-jointed antennje, the basal joint being small, the second 

 large, the third largest and oval, with a two-jointed pubescent bristle on the back, the 

 first of the joints being very minute. The lore body is oblong, whitish on the sides, 

 with three faint, interrupted dusky stripes upon the back. The hind body is shining 

 gray, rather small and elliptical, tapering to the apex, with a black stripe down the 

 back, the edges of the segments and the region of the scutel being also black. The 

 two rings are large, transparent, iridescent, laid the one upon the other in repose, the 

 longitudinal veins extending to the margin, with two transverse veinlets in the disk. 

 The poisers are pale yellowish. The six legs are black and bristly, the feet five-jointed, 

 ending in two little claws and two large pale leathery lobes. 



The/(7na/e is of a uniform ash-gray color, excepting the silvery-white face and pale 

 sides of the fore body. The eyes are widely apart, with a broad black stripe between 

 them, which is shaded into chestnut color in front. The hind body is larger than in 

 the male and conical toward its apex. The wings have a tinge of yellowish at their 

 bases. The species measures 0.22 inch in length aud 0.45 inch in width across the ex- 

 tended wings. 



Remedies. — The best preventive is undoubtedly early sowing and the 

 rotation of crops ; while infected roots should be pulled up and burned 

 with the maggots in them, hot water should be poured on the roots, 

 aud salt aud lime applied. 



The Radish Seed-Weevil. — Devouring the seeds, gnawing a hole through the side 

 of the pod ; the small white grub of a pale-gray, broad, short weevil. 



In the year 1857 I found in IMaine upon the radish-leaves a specimen 

 of a weevil, which I cannot distinguish by Curtis's description and fig- 

 ure from the European CeutorJnjncJius assimiUs Payk. 



In Europe this weevil was first observed among turnip-seed, where, a& 

 a white maggot, it devours the seed in the pods; when fully fed it gnaws 

 a hole through the side of the pod, out of which it escapes, and makes 

 its way into the ground two or three inches below the surface, where it 



