REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I9II II9 



distant from grasslands as practical and avoid planting upon 

 recently turned sod. Plowing of infested land in late summer 

 or early fall, Aug'ust or early September, should result in most of 

 the caterpillars perishing before the following spring. This can 

 not always be done, and danger of injury by species of web- 

 worms which feed in the early spring may be obviated to some 

 extent by delaying the plowing as late as possible so as to give 

 the caterpillars an opportunity to complete tlieir growth before 

 another crop is planted. Early spring plowing may only aggra- 

 vate the injury by retarding the development of the caterpillars, 

 with the result that when corn or some other crop appears, it is 

 speedily devoured by hordes of half-starved webworms. Extra 

 heavy seeding is also advantageous under these conditions, since 

 there is a greater liklihood of some stalks escaping injury. 



Lunate onion fly. (Eumerus strigatus Fallen) . Numer- 

 ous specimens of this European fly, kindly identified by Mr W. R. 

 Walton through the courtesy of Dr L. O. Howard, were reared 

 August 19, 191 1, from Iris roots received from Saratoga Springs, 

 N. Y., which had also been badly injured by the Iris borer, M a c- 

 ronoctua onusta Grote. There appears to be no published 

 record of this insect having been found in America, though Dr 

 F. H. Chittenden kindly informs n:e in a recent communication, 

 that flies were reared in the Bureau of Entomology from Amaryl- 

 lis bulbs received from Buffalo, N. Y., in October, 1906, and also 

 from bulbs from Connecticut and Brownsville, Texas. The species 

 is evidently widely distributed. The establishment of this insect in 

 America is of more than passing interest, since it is recorded as 

 attacking onions in Europe. Verrall.^ states that the maggots 

 sometimes destroy the entire crop quite as the larvae of Mero- 

 don affect Narcissi. The larvae occurred in July and pupated 

 in the bulbs or in the neighboring earth. Dr J. Ritzema 

 Bos- finds that one to several maggots may occur in the heart 

 of an onion, causing a decay accompanied by a black dis- 

 coloration. He is of the opinion that there are two genera- 

 tions annually and describes the full-grown maggots as one-third 

 to nearly one-half of an inch long, dirty grayish yellow and granu- 

 lated in appearance. Francis Walker^ records this species as gen- 

 erally distributed in Great Britain and adds that the larvae belong- 



1 1901, British Flics 8.615. 



^1891, Tierische Schiidl. u. Niitzl. p. 634. 



3 1851, Insecta Britannica, Diptera, 1:241-42. 



