88 
LITERATURE OF THE SPECIES. 
Dr. Fitch's account of this species is brief. He noticed that the fly 
occurred in abundance upon the heads of wheat the latter part of June 
in New York, presumably in the neighborhood of Albany, and as this 
fly had been currently regarded as the parent of the wheat midge 
(Diplosis tritici Kirby), he gave the insect some attention, and, finding 
it new to our fauna, described it as the deceiving wheat fly (Hylemyia 
deceptive!) (1st Kept, Ins. N. Y. for 1856, p. 301, PL I, fig. 3). Noth- 
ing was known by Fitch of the habits of this species further than 
that the flies hovered over and alighted upon wheat heads at the time 
when they were in flower. In 1869 Dr. Riley redescribed this species 
(1st Mo. Rpt., pp. 151-156, PL II, fig. 21, text figs. 86 and 87), giving 
it the name of the seed-corn maggot (Anthomyia zeas)* also the corn 
Anthomyia. The maggots were noticed attacking kernels of sprout- 
ing corn in the vicinity of Ridgewood, N. J., and in other fields in the 
same (Bergen) county. Mere mention of the species was made the 
same year by Riley, and the case is cited here to show the tendency 
that existed even in those early days, as well as later, to multiply 
book names for insects. He refers to the species as the "seed-corn 
flower-fly" (American Ent., Vol. II, p. 137). In 1877 Dr. Riley's third 
account of this species appears under the title ''The Anthomyia egg- 
parasite" (Anthomyia angustifrons Meigen). The statement is made 
that in the fall of 1876 the maggot destroyed about 10 per cent of 
locust eggs in Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, and in some localities 
a much larger percentage; it was quite common also in Iowa and Min- 
nesota and occurred in Colorado and Texas (1st Rept. U. S. Ent. Com. 
for 1877 [1878], pp. 285-289). 
During 18S5 this species was injurious to beans at Chateauguav. 
Quebec, Canada (John G. Jack, Can. Ent., Vol. XVIII, p. 22; 17th 
Ann. Rpt. Ent. Soc. Out., 1887, p. 17). The beans were planted June 
15, and in that part of the field that was most seriously injured at least 
nine-tenths of the crop was destroyed. Ten da} T s after planting, as 
few beans had appeared above the surface of the ground, examination 
was made as to the cause, and it was then found that nearly every bean 
was infested by from 1 to 25 maggots. Both stems and seed leaves 
were attacked. By the 28th of June many larva? had pupated, and 
scarcely a maggot was found after July 2. The adults issued July 10. 
Mr. Jack, in reporting this occurrence, stated that "if this bean- 
feeding habit of the insect should become general, it might prove very 
annoying." 
In Insect Life (Vol. VI, p. 372) Dr. Howard, in referring to para- 
sites of the sugar-beet webworm, makes mention of this species, 
stating, among other things, that the fly had been reared by Dr. Riley 
a Spelled on both pages 154 and 155 li zeas," without doubt a typographical error. 
