6 o 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. I, No. i 
subject of investigations and observations made by several members 
of the Section of Cereal and Forage Crop Insect Investigations, and the 
following results are herein set forth regarding this leaf-miner as an 
enemy of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and other forage crops in America. 
SYNONYMY 
Mr. J. R. Malloch, recently of the Bureau of Entomology, after making 
a careful study of specimens from Europe and also of a large amount of 
material from widely separated localities in the United States, includes as 
synonyms of Agromyza pusilla the following names heretofore supposed 
to apply to valid species: 
A. pusilla Meig., A. pumila Meig., A. strigata Meig., A. exilis Meig., A. amoena 
Meig., A. puella Meig., A. pusio Meig., A. orbona Meig., A. blanda Meig. (?), A. dimi- 
nuta Walker (?), Oscinis trifolii Burg., Oscinis brassicae Riley. 
HISTORY OF THE SPECIES IN EUROPE 
According to Schiner, “ the larvae mine the leaves of Euphorbia cyparis- 
sias ,” the cypress spurge, also called “ quacksalver's spurge,” which 
according to Britton and Brown has escaped from gardens to the road¬ 
sides and waste places in the Atlantic States. 
The same authority quotes Bouch£ as stating of Agromyza amoena Meig. 
that “the larvae mine leaves of Sambucus nigra, the common European 
elder.” 
Kaltenbach records observing the larvae of Agromyza trifolii mining in 
the leaves of Trifolium medium in June and in those of T. repens (white 
clover) in September. He also says of A. strigata: “The mining larva 
lives in leaves of Campanula trachelium (bellflower).” 
Goureau, 1 in 1861, records Agromyza nigripes, a related European 
species, as mining in the leaves of Medicago sativa (lucem), in Europe, 
and his description of the habits and injury caused by these miners is 
very similar to that which might be given of A. pusilla and its injury to 
alfalfa in America. 
Decaux, 2 in 1890, records A. nigripes as mining the leaves of lucem 
in France, and in the infested area estimates a loss of from 20 to 25 
per cent of the crop due to the injury to the lucem leaves by this miner. 
Groult, 3 in writing of A. nigripes in France, records the mines during 
August and September in fields of lucem and states that where large 
numbers of the mines were present the devastation became noticeable 
and the injured lucem made poor forage. 
1 Goureau, Charles. Les insectes nuisibles aux arbres fruitiers, aux plantes potageres, aux cerdales et aux 
plantes fourrageres. Bui. Soc. Sci. Hist, et Nat. de l’Yonne, v. 15, p. 76-454, juill., 1861. “Agromyza 
nigripes ,” p. 385-386. 
2 Decaux, Francois. [Agromyza nigripes Meig.] Ann. Soc. Ent. France, ser. 6, t. 10 [Bui.], p. ccvi- 
ccvii, nov. 26, 1890. 
s Groult, Paul. UAgromyza nigripes. Ee Naturaliste [Paris], an. 30 (ser. 2, an. 22), no. 517. P- 219-220, 
sept. 15,1908. 
