a 
New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMBNT STATION. 293 
THE ASPARAGUS MINER. 
HISTORY. 
This fly has been known to collectors for a number of years, 
but as far as can be learned, what it feeds upon has not, hitherto, 
been ascertained, or its life history worked out. In 1897 Mr. 
Chittenden’ of the Division of Entomology, Washington, D. C., 
reported collecting it on asparagus and suggested that it might 
feed upon that plant. The only species of fly reported in Kuro- 
pean literature as infesting the asparagus plant is a species of 
Ortalis? known as the “asparagus-fly,” the maggots of which 
burrow into the stalk of the asparagus and work downward to 
the root. 
DESCRIPTION, 
As the adult fly has already been described in works on diptera 
only a general description is given here. 
Adult—The adult is a small, metallic-black fly, 3 to 4 mm. 
long {about one-sixth inch) and rather broad as compared with 
its length; it is usually found resting upon flowers and branchlets 
of asparagus and especially on plants that have been gnawed or 
eaten by the asparagus beetle. A modified camera lucida draw- 
ing of this fly is shown on Plate XLVI], Fig. 1. 
figg.—The eggs have not been found. 
Larva.—The larve or maggots are about 5 mm. long, some- 
what flattened and of a white or transparent-white color. It is 
found only beneath the epidermis near base of asparagus plants. 
Fig. 2, Plate XLVII is a greatly enlarged drawing of the larva, 
giving a side view. The black rasp-like jaw or proboscis is shown 
at r, the cephalic and caudal spiracles are shown at 8s, s. 
Puparium.—The puparium, or resting stage, of this miner 
resembles the “ flax-seed” stage of the “Hessian fly.” The 
2U. S. Dept. Agr., Div. Ent. Bul. 10, n. s. 
®Platyparea pecilloptera Schrank. (Ortalis fulminans Mg.) J. Bobttner. 
Praktisches Lehrbuch des Spargel-baus. Frankfurt a. Oder: Trowitzsch u. 
Sohn, 1897, p. 100. Trypeta fulminans, E. H. Meyer in Braunschw. Laudw. 
Ztg., 65 (1897): No. 3, pp. 9-10f | 
