19 
the bristles; thorax with an indistinct middle stripe of brown; 
legs black, tinted with cinereous; poisers pale ochre-yellow; 
scales small, the upper valve larger than the lower.” 
The Black-headed Grass Maggot. 
(Sciara sp.) 
(Plate III., Fig. 3-7.) 
When the spring is cool and wet after corn-planting, so that 
the softened seed lies long in the ground without sprouting, 
this is especially liable to certain kinds of injury; and it is under 
these conditions that the black-headed maggot seems most 
likely to affect it injuriously. Rotting grain is, indeed, un¬ 
doubtedly preferred by this insect, but it has occasionally been 
seen to infest kernels which had begun to grow. It lives nor¬ 
mally in old sod, feeding chiefly, or perhaps altogether, on de¬ 
caying vegetation there, and will be found in noticeable num¬ 
bers in corn fields only where the field was in grass the preced¬ 
ing year. These maggots penetrate and hollow out the kernel, 
often leaving nothing more than an empty hull. A score or 
more of them may infest a single grain. 
They are also frequently noticed in rich garden ground and 
among potted plants, where they are accused by gardeners of 
eating the roots and hollowing out the bulbs. 
The species is very common throughout the State, and, doubt¬ 
less, throughout the country at large, but it has been noticed 
in its relation to grass and corn only in an article in my Thir¬ 
teenth Report (p. 57). 
No serious attempts have been made to determine the history 
of this species, but the following data from our scattered notes 
concerning the time of occurence of its various stages are 
worthy of permanent record. 
In hothouse and other indoor cultures it may continue to 
breed and grow the winter through. January 8, 1889, imagos 
were observed flying about a flower pot in my office which con¬ 
tained growing corn and wheat, and 'January 18 one fly was 
found with a string of several eggs yet attached to her oviposi¬ 
tor. On the same day nearly full-grown larvae and pupae were 
found a little below the surface of the earth in the pot. Pupae 
were noticed again February 11, these having come from larvae 
previously noticed feeding on rotting grains of corn. Feb. 1, 
1892, larvae of this species were received from Mr. Benjamin 
Buckman, of Farmingdale, Illinois, with the statement that they 
had mined nearly alf his flower bulbs. The adult fly, he says, 
“seems to be a small fly or gnat, as this has been quite numer¬ 
ous about the pots all winter.” 
The larva w r as first brought to my notice as a corn insect in 
May, 1883, through Dr. Boardman of Stark county, who for¬ 
warded specimens to my office with the information that this in- 
