102 oxioN. 



Shallot Fly. Where I have had the opportunity of watching method 

 of attack of which the flies (the A.jdatura) proved to be of this species, 

 I have found the injury was begun for the most part at the base of the 

 bulb, or at the lowest part of the side. — Ed.) 



Continuing the observations of John Curtis with regard to time of 

 duration of attack during the year, and also of duration of the condition 

 of the insect in its successive stages, he remarks as follows : — " These 

 maggots have been observed as early as May, and I have found them 

 alive even in December, but June and July are the mouths in which 

 they are in full force. In about fourteen days they attain their full 

 size, when they generally leave the Onion, and descend into the earth, 

 to become pupae within their indurated skins, which form an elliptical 

 chestnut-coloured shell ; thus" . . . "they remain from ten to 

 twenty days in the summer, before the fly is perfected and makes its 

 appearance ; but the autumnal pupae rest through the winter in that 

 torpid state, and the flies are not developed until the end of April or 

 the beginning of May." 



The male of the A. ceparum "is of an ash -colour, roughish, with 

 black bristles and hairs ; the eyes are contiguous and reddish ; the face 

 silvery white ; horns black ; there are three obscure lines down the 

 back, and a line of long blackish spots down the centre of the body ; " 

 . . . " the wings are transparent, slightly iridescent, tinged with 

 ochre at the base, the nervures pale brown ; poisers ochreous ; legs 

 ashy brown. 



"The female is ochreous or ashy grey, dotted with black bristles 

 and hairs ; the eyes are reddish, and remote with a light chestnut 

 stripe between them, bifid and darkest at the base ; face yellowish 

 white." =:= 



The flies of the A. platura are in general appearance very similar 

 to the above, but there are minute differences, as some brown 

 longitudinal stripes on the back, and some brown markings on the 

 abdomen of the male ; the legs black ; the poisers whitish, with the 

 stalk brown, and there are other slight points of variation requiring a 

 good magnifier to make out. f 



Prevention and Remedies. — Attention is usually first directed to 

 something amiss, and needing looking to, amongst the young Onions, by 

 the leaves fading and turning yellow, and the bulb, or the base of the 

 stem, even before the base can be said to be formed, decaying conse- 

 quently on the ravage of the fly- maggots within. Under these 



* See paper on the Onion and Cabbage Flies, by " Ruricola " (Joliu Curtis), 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' 1841, p. 296 (by error for p. 396). 



t For description see Schiner's 'Fliegen,' vol. i., p. 045, and 'Praktische 

 Insekten Kuude,' of Dr. E. L. Taschenberg, Pt. iv., p. 130. 



