WHEAT-BULB FLY. 
21 
The specimens of young Wheat plants forwarded were for the 
most part so much injured by the gnawing of the maggot that they 
were consequently decaying, and, though the severe nature of the 
attack was plain, there was difficulty in making out the kind 
of fly which caused it*, for very few maggots or chrysalids then 
remained. Of these the only one that developed to an injurious 
insect proved to be either of the Oscinis frit , the Frit Fly itself, or 
of a nearly allied species; but whether it was the above or 0. vastator 
(which is considered by Taschenberg to be the spring form of 0. frit , 
feeding in the Wheat bulb, whilst the autumn brood feeds in the ear), 
it was of interest as showing the presence of such an injurious fly. 
Still such a small quantity of it was present that it was by no means 
certainly the cause of the attack, and further specimens "were 
requested. Young Wheat plants were accordingly forwarded by 
Mr. Creese, at the end of March of the present year (1882), with 
maggots then feeding inside the stalk, just above the bulb ; and I am 
permitted to state, on the authority of Mr. R. H. Meade, who watched 
the progress of these larvae up to their development on May 27th, that 
they are the maggots of the two-winged fly, known scientifically as 
Hylemyia coarctata (of Fallen). 
This is a small fly, not unlike the Onion Fly in general appearance. 
The females are pale ash-grey; the males have body between the 
wings ( thorax ) grey and lighter at the sides, with a faint stripe along 
the centre, and the abdomen, which is long, narrow and flat, ash- 
colour also, with a faint line along the back.* 
The maggots or larvae are whitish and legless, much like those 
of the common Blue-bottle Fly in appearance, and when full grown 
are upwards of a quarter of an inch in length ; the pup® or fly-cases 
are chestnut-brown. 
With regard to habits and amount of injury, it is mentioned by 
Mr. Creece that the Wheat-bulb maggot is entirely absent in some 
seasons, but is very destructive in about three years out of four; that 
it attacks plant on land which has been fallowed in the previous 
summer, but does not ever appear on land ploughed for the first time 
in the autumn ; also that it “ always leaves a belt of five or six yards 
near the hedge untouched.” The damage is sometimes so complete 
as not “ to leave a healthy plant in a yard,” and in 1881 the 
destruction by Wheat grubs was at the rate of 15 bushels per acre in 
50 acres of fallow Wheat. 
* For full description see “ List of British Anthomyidce, 16. Hylemyia ,” by R. H. 
Meade, ‘Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine,’ 1882, p. 269, 
