1S4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In my opinion Mr. Williams is also mistaken as to the method of the 

 female laying its eggs. For in the first place the insect has a very long 

 ovipositor, which one would imagine to be useless for laying eggs whilst 

 flying ; and secondly, I on July 7 saw a female sitting on the edge of a 

 hole, left by the decaying Daffodil leaves, and stretching her ovipositor 

 downwards. From which I infer that the egg is deposited as low down as 

 she can reach amongst the shrinking and dying foliage, and that the grub, 

 hatching quickly, follows the foliage to the neck of the bulb, and then 

 works its way down the inside of the bulb towards the base. This, 

 however, is inference and not observation. 



I have noticed that when bulbs have been dug up and are stored in 

 quantity a grub will often eat its way out of the side of one bulb and into 

 the side or top or any part of the next bulb that touches it, so that little 

 dependence can be placed on observation of stored bulbs. I have caught 

 a grub with its head buried in the side of one bulb and its tail in the neck 

 of another. 



There is no doubt whatever but that the fly is very abundant in 

 England now, and there is very little doubt that it was first imported from 

 Holland about thirty years back. Growers of Daffodils do not like to 

 admit they have got it, but I do not believe any garden exists in this 

 country where 1,000 bulbs are grown where you could not find Merodou 

 cquestris among them. Whilst the discussion (of which this paper is an 

 outcome) was going on, a great Dutch grower was heard to say that " he 

 didn't know what we were talking about. They hadn't got any Merodou 

 in Holland." At which one of the chief Daffodil growers in England was 

 heard to remark sotto voce, " Then they must have been doing a wonderful 

 export trade in them lately." And so, as a fact, we have all got Merodou. 

 English and Dutch, amateurs and trade growers alike, some more and 

 some less abundantly, and we should all for our own and each other's 

 sake strive hard to keep the pest under by catching the Hies and keeping 

 a sharp look-out for the grubs when we are cleaning our harvested bulbs. 



Mr. George S. Saunders, a member of our Scientific Committee and 

 a well-known authority on all forms of insect life, writes to me thus : — 



The grub of the Narcissus-fly, Merodou cquestris, or M. narcissi, 

 as it is called by some authors, is much better known than the 

 parent fly, but it is very essential to growers of bulbs that they 

 should be able to recognise this fly, for one of the best means at our 

 disposal for destroying this pest is by killing the flies. By the 

 casual observer who is not an entomologist in any way, these flies 

 may be mistaken for small "bumble-bees," just as their near 

 relatives the common drone-flies are mistaken for honey-bees, for 

 they are very hairy, and banded with various colours just as the 

 bumble-bees are ; but they may easily be distinguished from them 

 by their narrower form, and by only having two pairs of wings, and 

 their antenme or feelers are much shorter. The Narcissus-fly varies 

 very much in colour — so much, indeed, that differently coloured 

 specimens have been described as different species. The head is 

 dark brown or black ; the thorax or fore-body is sometimes entirely 

 black, sometimes has a reddish yellow or greyish band in front and 

 behind, and is thickly covered with hairs. The body is also covered 



