DIPTERA OR TRUE FLIES. 223 



or "red maggot" by farmers. The larvas mature by the time 

 the corn is ripening, and many go down to the ground to 

 pupate, the puparia being orange - coloured bodies. Others 

 which are not full fed get harvested, and we find them often 

 quite abundant in the screenings. From these puparia next 

 June the wheat midges hatch out, and continue their noxious 

 habits. It is strange, when collecting these flies in the field, 

 how few males one ever sees. But, on the other hand, where 

 heaps of machine rubbish are left about, there in June, often 

 hovering in clouds above the heaps, males and females may be 

 seen in copula in equal numbers. This pest is not confined to 

 Great Britain, but is equally abundant in America. From 

 personal observation I find the female lays about ten to twenty 

 eggs in each ear at dusk. 



Prevention. — These flies are very delicate creatures, and can- 

 not escape through the soil unless close to the surface, where we 

 usually find the red puparia. Therefore, deeply ploughing in 

 the stubble in the following way cannot fail to do good — 

 namely, by having a skim-coulter attached to the plough in 

 such a way that it will take off an inch or so of the surface 

 and turn it into the preceding furrow, thus burying larvse 

 and puparia to such a depth that they cannot escape when 

 mature. Another important thing to do is to destroy all 

 infested rubbish from the machines, for over those rubbish- 

 heaps, as already said, breeding largely takes place. In America 

 the plan of not reaping too close and burning the stubble 

 must also do good. D. tritiei also feeds on timothy grass and 

 meadow cook's-foot. 



The Peak Midge (Diplosis pyeivora). 



During recent years attention has been repeatedly drawn to 

 the loss amongst pears caused by Cecid larvae. The fly which 

 gives rise to these was described as Gecidomyia nigra by 

 Meigen, but has been redescribed and named by Professor 

 Eiley Diplosis pyrivora. It is destructive in America as well 



