INSECTS AND OTHER ANIMAL Pests INJURIOUS To FreELD Beans) 955 
of injury to the bean caused by the seed-corn maggot, and in some fields 
the writer has found 75 per cent of the plants to be thus deformed. 
If the maggot feeds on the leaf tissue of the plumule but does not destroy 
the growing tip, a thrifty plant may still result. The first two leaves may 
be misshapen and ragged, but new leaves are soon produced to take their 
places. 
Injury to the cotyledons 
Often a larva does not injure the cotyledons until it has fed on the 
plumule. Its entrance into a cotyledon is thru a hole made in the side, 
and the maggot usually hollows out the fleshy interior until little more 
than a shell remains. The maggots are often carried above the ground 
concealed in the cotyledons, and a single plant may have eight or even 
more hidden in these two seed-leaves. Damage to the cotyledons alone 
is not a serious handicap, as these are of little use to the plant after the 
true leaves have been formed. 
Injury to the radicle 
When a seed germinates so quickly that the cotyledons are pushed above 
the ground before any maggots locate the plant, the radicle may be at- 
tacked. The larva makes a small hole for its entrance and then mines 
upward thru the fleshy tissue of the stem. This injury is not serious, 
as the course of the maggot is thru the pith and it seldom disturbs the 
vascular tissue. In 1917 the writer observed a field near Batavia in 
which the beans were planted very deep. Soon after planting, a period 
of dry weather baked the top soil solid. The beans grew until they 
reached this upper impenetrable surface layer, and then they were bent 
over. Many maggots were found in the stem of each plant. 
LOSS CAUSED 
The year 1917 was a serious one for New York bean growers, because 
of the continued rains and the prevalence of maggots during the planting 
time, in June. In five townships of Genesee County the loss of seed at- 
tributed to Hylemyia cilicrura was estimated at $15,000. In Erie County 
the loss on 10,478 acres was said to be 40 per cent. In Monroe County 
from 50 to 75 per cent of the beans on 16,000 acres were destroyed, while 
in Orleans County one-fourth of $96,000: worth of seed was wasted. Many 
growers had to plant their beans two or three times, and one grower, who 
reseeded twice before getting a stand, estimated his loss for seed at $300. 
Similar injuries to bean crops were reported from New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, Michigan, and Canada. At intervals in the past this insect has 
appeared thus suddenly and unexpectedly, has seriously damaged beans, 
corn, and other crops for a few subsequent years, and has then gradually 
disappeared for a time. 
