72 THE REPORT OF THE No. 36 



no egg is left in the opening this is all smoothed down and usually sealed tight 

 with a glue-like secretion used on the eggs. The present instance, however, was 

 the only one noted where no liquid was used in the operation. Whether due 

 to the position of hanging under the petiole or not could not be seen. The plant 

 was throughly examined but found to contain only three eggs. Feeling certain 

 that all eggs for the day had not been laid the beetles were transferred to a more 

 inviting plant. The female at once proceeded to make a puncture in a petiole 

 one-half inch above the sheath. This operation took five minutes, then the 

 position was reversed with head down. One egg was laid in three and one-half 

 minutes. Very little movement of the body was noted in the process. After 

 the egg had passed into the ovipositor it was forced out by pressure from the 

 genital plates. When the ovipositor was withdrawn two eggs were on the surface 

 laid in one and one-half minutes. The most remarkable feature of external 

 oviposition is the drastic treatment given the egg mass after being laid on the 

 outside of the plant. The genital plates are partially opened, to be used as a 

 battering ram, the eggs being pounded about with such apparent carelessness, 

 that it seems strange they are not all broken. A copious flow of liquid, and a 

 rubbery pliant egg shell is all that saves them from destruction. This cementing 

 process occupies two to three minutes, a little fluid being secreted at intervals 

 on the eggs, and the plant surface where the eggs are to be fastened. This 

 continual battering of the eggs finally forces them all together, and in close 

 contact with the freshly glued stem surface, where they are fairly secure after 

 the liquid dries. This beetle, which had been under close observation with the 

 hand lens, rested a few moments, then made a puncture in the sheath of the 

 same petiole, reversed her position and at once began to lay a mass. Twenty- 

 four eggs were deposited in twenty-five minutes. The mass was well coated with 

 fluid. The eggs were all introduced through the puncture in the same way, 

 each egg pushing the one before it farther in. 



THE SUNFLOWER MAGGOT {Straussia longipennis Wied.) 



J. Eric Brink 



The cultivated sunflower is coming to hold a very important place as a 

 silage crop in Western Canada and in other regions where corn does not thrive. 

 The utilization of this plant as a feed for dairy cows is economically important, 

 not only for the reason that it is well adapted for soiling and silage purposes, 

 but because it is suited to a wide variation of climatic and soil conditions. It 

 is an exceptionally hardy plant, even resisting 5° or 6° of frost. 



Corn has always been looked upon as the king of silage crops in sections 

 where it is grown. But the European Corn Borer is proving to be a serious 

 pest to the corn grower. The wave of the Chinch Bug northward in the great 

 corn belt has made farmers in certain sections actually abandon its cultivation. 

 So far the sunflower has been immune to the ravages of the European Corn 

 Borer and also of the Chinch Bug. 



From this one can readily see that the sunflower is gaining recognition as 

 a silage crop. As the old saying is "There is a bug for everything," so the sun- 

 flower has its enemy in the sunflower maggot. The earliest record found in 

 regard to this fly was in 1887, when it was discovered in the State of Maine 

 ovipositing in sunflower stalks. Since then it has been recorded in California, 

 Maine, New York, Alberta, and Ontario, showing that it is generally distributed 



