[NSECTS INJrinOUS TO THE LOCO WEEDS. 



39 



larval stage it displays a remarkable diversity of habits, although it 

 l- evidently by choice a root feeder and is also, with the seed-corn 

 maggot and many related insects, a scavenger by nature, following in 



some cases original attack by some other form of insect. It has been 

 record^! by Dr. L. (). Howard as having been bred from larva- in 



human excrement in houses and out of door-. Mr. E. G. Titus has 

 reared it from sugar beet collected at Olney, Colo., and from cockle- 

 hiir collected at St. Matthews. S. C., where it was feeding in the cells 

 of a^reevil. BarU tr<insn ,-sn. In September. l ( .»n;,. it wa- reared by 

 the writer from onions infested by Tritoxa flexa from Williamson 

 School. Pa., and there is positive evidence that it had fed on the 

 onion bulbs, as neither stems nor leaves were present. Dr. J. B. 

 Smith also has reared it from onions. In 1906 it was reared from 

 corn on the farm of Dr. B. T. Galloway near the District of Colum- 

 bia, where it was reported injurious, the injury being at first attrib- 



Fig. 12. — Spotted root fly {Euxetta notata) : Adult mal«' at right: f>'uial«' at left 

 Much enlarged (original). 



uted to the seed-corn maggot, a> attack was to seed corn and resem- 

 bled the work of the latter species. From cabbage it has been reared 

 on two occasions, viz. from the roots collected at Washington, D. 

 C, and from maggot-infested roots received from Bethel, Alaska. 

 It has also been bred from the pulp of Osage orange, from apples in- 

 fested by the codling moth, from sumach fruit, from the bolls ^\' 

 cotton, and from Solatium. It is not rare in diseased cotton bolls. 



This fly belongs to the same family as the preceding, the Ortali- 

 d;e. and is shown in figure 12, where it will he -ecu that it ha- a large 

 head and flat body. Each wing i- marked with two black -pot-. 

 The female i- distinguished from the male by it- more -lender form, 

 -mailer head, and pointed abdomen, which bears near the anal ex- 

 tremity a distinct white transverse band. The body i- metallic blue. 



Our rearings -how that Larvae have come under observation from 

 May 27 to as late a- ( October 2 and that tlies have issued from various 

 sources June 10-July 30, September s 21, and throughout October. 

 78936°— Bull. 64 11 1 



