CABBAGE AND TURNIP-ROOT MAGGOT. 
11 
These three kinds are respectively known as the Cabbage Fly, the 
Root Fly, and the Radish Fly. The scientific names are given above. 
The history of the “ Cabbage Fly ” is the one which appears to 
have been most recorded. It is stated* that sometimes the Flies, 
sometimes the chrysalids (pupae) of the last brood of the year, live 
through the winter, and come out in the following spring. Then the 
females lay their eggs in groups of few or many, as the case may be, 
at the Cabbage plant, and always as deep down as possible at the lower 
part of the stalk, that is, below the ground. The eggs hatch in about 
ten days, and the maggots bore into the stems, the parts on which 
they feed soon beginning to decay. When full-fed the maggots turn 
to red or gold-coloured chrysalids in the earth, and the whole lifetime 
in summer, from the egg to the perfect Fly, amounts to about eight 
weeks, so that there is a rapid succession of attacks, 
This is the kind which, together with the Root Fly, has been con¬ 
sidered to do most harm, but, from the specimens sent me during the 
past season and previously, which have been kindly identified for me 
by the excellent skill of Mr. R. H. Meade, the common kind appears 
really to be that known as the Radish Fly. 
On June lltli Mr. Reginald W. Christy forwarded me specimens of 
maggots which were feeding on roots of Cabbage, “and doing con¬ 
siderable damage”; over twenty were found feeding at one Cabbage 
root, and these proved to be maggots of A. Jloralis , the Radish Fly. 
The method of prevention will be better studied after noticing the 
attraction of farm manure (especially when rank and new) for the 
Flies. 
The following note of the method of attack, and also of the great 
amount of damage caused by Fly-maggot (of which specimens were 
sent accompanying), is by Mr. John Ward, Rainsdale, Nottingham:— 
“ Aug. 1st, 1883. I send to-day a box containing Turnip plants 
affected with maggots. . . . You will observe that sometimes the 
maggot enters the base of the root and lives there, but in other cases 
it seems to eat off all the small rootlets that usually spring from the 
side of the main root, leaving the plant dependent solely on one or 
two small fibres at the end of the tap-root. 
“ Sometimes it eats the neck of the Turnip all round until it severs 
the top from the root. As hundreds of acres in this district are 
affected with it, some information as to its life-history will be gladly 
received by myself and fellow-sufferers.” 
With regard to attack near Gloucester, Mr. J. Cummings, New¬ 
town, Newent, mentioned that this year, for the first time, his Swedes 
were attacked by a white maggot, and the crop considerably damaged. 
* ‘ Praktische Insecten kunde,’ Dr. E. L. Taschenberg, pt. iv., p. 129. 
