1090 The American Naturalist. [November, 
Professor Harvey has investigated the subject de novo, and besides 
adding a number of new facts to our knowledge of the insect, 
has corrected several points in its currently accepted life-history. 
In Maine the flies appear about July ist, continuing to emerge 
all summer, and being found in abundance until October. Each 
female fly is capable of laying at least three or four hundred eggs, 
which are inserted from time to time, one in a place, by means of a 
sharp ovipositor through the skin of the apple. The full-grown larve 
leave the fruit after it falls, and pupate at or near the soil surface. 
The winter is passed in the pupa state, the flies appearing the follow- 
ing summer. The destruction of windfalls is considered the most 
promising remedial measure. Preventing the importation of infected 
fruit from other States by law is strongly recommended. The article 
closes with a critical review of the literature of the species, which leads 
to this pertinent paragraph: ‘‘The above review also suggests the 
importance of careful work on the part of entomologists that their 
writings be as free as possible from errors, and that great care should 
be taken, especially in quotations, to keep theories and surmises dis- 
tinct from facts obtained by careful research. 
The investigations thus recorded were evidently made as a part of the 
work of the Maine State College Experiment Station, but there is 
nothing upon the copy at hand to indicate when, where, or by whom 
it was published.3 
American Frit Fly.—Professor H. Garman, of the Kentucky 
Experiment Station, in a recent bulletin (No. 30), describes the life- 
history of a new wheat fly, supposed to be Oscinis variabilis Loew, for 
which the above name is proposed, on account of its similarity to the 
European frit fly (Oscinis frit L.). The insect has been found infesting 
grain in Fayette county, Ky., although but little damage has yet been 
done. Careful descriptions, accompanied by good figures, of the 
larva, puparium, and adult are given. The destruction of volunteer 
grain and late planting are the preventive measures suggested. 
The Genus Agrotis.—Bulletin No. 38 of the U. S. National 
Museum consists of a revision of the North American species of the 
genus Agrotis by Prof. J. B. Smith. Lepidopterists are to be con- 
gratulated upon the publication of this paper, for it treats in a clear 
and systematic way of a group which, as the author well says, was 
simply “a huge assemblage of species, through which no path was 
® Since this was written we have learned that the memoir forms a part of the Maine 
Experiment Station Report for 1889. 
