REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



319 



(See Curtis' Farm Insects, p. 71.) This parasite was received at the 

 Department February 27, 1880, from Norfolk, Ya., and was described 

 as Trioxys piceus by Mr. Cresson in the Annual Report of this Depart 

 ment for 1879, page 200. This same parasite was bred by us at Saint 

 Louis as long ago as 1871. 



REMEDIES. 



The remedy of fumigation with tobacco smoke, as recommended by 

 Fitch, Curtis, Thomas, and others, is impracticable on a large scale, and 

 applications of soot, ashes, lime, and washes of tobacco- water and 

 other materials seem ineffectual. Strong whale-oil Boap solution, in- 

 deed, seems to be the only remedy so far tried which affords any satis 

 faction. This is highly recommended by Prof. W. R. Lazenby, formerly 

 of the Horticultural Department of Cornell University. Taschenberg 

 (Naturges. d. wirbellosen Thiere) recommends sprinkling with soap suds 

 treated with quassia, and also the use of a decoction of fresh walnut 

 leaves. 



Here, again, the pyrethrum infusion will destroy a large number of 

 the insects which work in such exyx>sed situations that they can be 

 easily reached by a spray, while the waxy material which they excrete 

 is not sufficiently abundant te perfectly shed a watery solution, as is 

 the case with many allied species. But the kerosene emulsion will 

 prove more satisfactory than any of the other insecticides mentioned. 



THE CABBAGE ANTHOMYIA. 

 (Anthomyia brassicce Bouche\) 

 Order Diptera; family Anthomyidje. 

 [Plate YIII; Fig. 5.] 



PAST HISTORY; HABITS. 



The Cabbage Fly has only been positively known in this country, so 

 far as we can ascertain, since 1850, and was in all probability introduced 

 from Europe at some date prior to this, as there seems to be no doubt 

 but that our species is identical with the European Anthomyia brassicce 

 of BouchC* Curtis has given accounts of the insect and its habits in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle and in his Farm Insects, and Taschenberg has 

 treated of it in his Naturgeschichte der wirbellosen Thiere. In this 

 country Fitch gives a good account of it in his Eleventh Keport on the 

 Insects of New York (1807), and it has received some attention from 

 writers in the different agricultural periodicals. Mr. Lintuer has also 

 written at length upon the species in his First Eeport as State Entomol- 

 ogist of New York (1883). 



According to Fitch, t lie maggots were very abundant and destructive 

 in New York State in 1856 and 1857, infesting turnips and rutabagas as 

 well as cabbages. There can be little doubt but that the work of these 

 larvae is one of several causes of "club-root" in cabbage. Appearing 

 in spring, the flies deposit their eggs upon the stems at or near the 



* This species is considered by Schiner and othors as a probable synonym of A. 

 ruficeys Meigen. 



