THE BLACK-HEADED GRASS MAGGOT. 
j ( Sciara , sp. ?) 
Order Diptera. Family Mycetophilid^e. 
[Plate IY, Figs. 5-9.1 
This insect, although not seriously injurious, as far as known, 
evertheless sometimes makes a peculiar attack on seed corn in the 
:ound, at a time and under circumstances to occasion considerable 
arm, and possibly to do some mischief. For the purpose of reas- 
iring those who may encounter it in their corn fields, if for no 
her reason, it will doubtless be worth while to treat it briefly. 
This larva first came to my knowledge as a corn insect, late in 
lay of the present year, at which time Dr. Boardman, of Stark 
runty, transmitted to me a footless, smooth, white, cylindrical 
jiva, about one-half inch long, with a jet-black head, which had 
t ed Idy Inm from a farmer of his county with the in- 
trmation that it was destroying the newly planted corn in the 
:ound by eating out the substance of the grain, sometimes as many 
^ three or four being found in a single kernel. By a letter from 
r. Boardman, dated May 28, I learned that the field attacked had 
3en in pasture for ten years preceding, partly in blue grass and 
urtly m timothy, and that a portion of it had been broken up for 
)m in the fall, and the remainder not until spring. The larvae 
ere very abundant throughout the field, not only in the grains of 
)rn, but everywhere in the turf, where they were apparently feed- 
ig on the dead and decaying grass. The blue grass ground con- 
imed more of them than the timothy, and that plowed in spring 
tore than that broken up the previous autumn. Where they were 
lickest, the earth was said to be literally alive with tliem.^ The 
I >rn was just coming up, but was in very bad condition, and a 
age part of it was being eaten up by the maggots. They were 
iso found abundant in many other fields in this vicinity, but only 
here the ground had been in grass the preceding year. 
On the 30th of May, a farmer living near Towanda sent me ex- 
tuples of maggots which he had noticed in his corn, together with 
kernels injured by them, which, on examination, proved 
) in® same as those above referred to. The corn had, most of 
!, sprouted but feebly, the season being excessively cold and wet, 
Qd otherwise especially unfavorable. Some of the grains were 
terally packed with the larvae, one having no less than ninety- 
iree clustered in and upon it. 
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