THE MYCETOPHILID,?! OF NORTH AMERICA. 21 5 



appear to be the precursor of some form of scab. They are 

 found in apples associated with the railroad worm; in bulbs of 

 tulips, and are occasionally reported by florists as damaging 

 plant roots. Professor Forbes in the i8th report of the State 

 Entomologist of Illinois states that they are frequently noticed 

 in rich garden ground and among potted plants, where they are 

 accused by gardeners of eating the roots and hollowing out the 

 bulbs. He also says "When the spring is cool and wet after 

 corn planting, so that the softened seed lies long in the ground 

 without sprouting, this is especially liable to certain kinds of 

 injury; and it is under these conditions that the black headed 

 maggot (Sciara sp) seems most likely to affect it injuriously. 

 Rotting grain is, indeed undoubtedly preferred by this insect, 

 but it has occasionally been seen to infest kernels which had 

 begun to grow. It lives normally in old sod, feeding chiefly, 

 or perhaps altogether, on decaying vegetation there, and will 

 be found in noticeable numbers in corn fields onlv where the 

 field was in grass the preceding year. These maggots penetrate 

 and hollow out the kernel, often leaving nothing more than an 

 empty hull. A score or more of them may infest a single 

 grain." 



Lintner in his loth report of the State Entomologist of New 

 York says "A species (perhaps more than one) is noted in 

 Europe, for its gregarious and migratory habits. It is there 

 known as the army-worm or Hecrzcninu from its collecting at 

 certain seasons in companies — sometimes consisting of millions 

 • — and traveling along in a body of often from 12 to 15 feet in 

 length and 2 or 3 inches broad and perhaps a half inch thick. 

 *M. Guerin ]\reneville observed columns as many as thirty yards 

 in length.' The s]iecies has not been positively determined, but 

 it is accepted as either Sciara Thouicc (Linn.) or S. miUtaris 

 Now. — but probably the latter, according to the statement of 

 Baron Osten Sacken. Similar gatherings have been observed 

 in this country, one of which is narrated in Insect Life, iv, 

 1891. page 214: two others recorded by Glover in the Report 

 of the Coiniiiissioner of Agriculture for 1872, p. 115, as 

 observed in Virginia (figures of the larva and fly are given) ; 

 and two others by Prof. F. AT. ^^^ebster, in Science for Febru- 

 ary 23, 1894. p. \oq. ^^'ith us they bear the name of 'snake- 



