Anthomyia, a genus of fly, very injurious to the gardener.

A. brassicae, cabbage fly, says Mr. Curtis, "is found on the wing through the summer, and is the parent of a maggot which has been known to lay waste whole fields of cabbages by diseasing the roots, in which they feed, as well as at the base of the stalk. Successive generations are feeding until November; the latter families lying in the pupa state through the winter, and most probably some of the flies survive that season, secreted in holes and crevices.

"When the Cabbage-leaves assume a lead or yellow colour, and droop in midday from the effect of the sun, such plants being diseased should be taken up, carried away, and burnt, and brine or lime put into the holes. Gardeners, in some instances, have collected large quantities of the pupae from the roots, by drawing away the earth; and as these insects are exceedingly rapid in their transformations, it is very likely that it may have a very material effect in checking their increase, and giving the succeeding crop a better chance of escaping the fate of the preceding one.

"The male of A. brassicae is dark bright grey, with black bristles; there is a black stripe half way down the middle of the thorax, and a curved one on each side; the body has a more decided black stripe down the centre, and the segments are marked by a line of the same colour; legs and antenna; blackish; wings a little smoky. The female is pale ashy grey; the eyes remote, with a dark chestnut-coloured stripe on the crown; the wings are similar in tint to those of the foregoing species, but the insects are considerably smaller." - Gard. Chron.

A. ceparum, Onion fly. For the following particulars I am indebted to the work of M. Kollar.

"The fly lays her eggs on the leaves of the onion, close to the earth.

"The newly-hatched maggot bores through the first leaf and then descends between the leaves into the onion to its base, when it entirely destroys the bulb, which soon becomes rotten. It leaves the onion to undergo its transformation in the earth, and becomes an elliptical, reddish-brown, wrinkled pupa, out of which the perfect fly is developed in summer in from ten to twenty days. The later brood pass the winter in the pupa state.

"The perfect insect or fly is entirely of an ash grey colour in the female, or with black stripes on the back of the male; the wings clear like glass, with broad iridescent reflections, and yellowish-brown veins. It is found throughout the summer in several generations.

"The larva lives during that season singly, and also gregariously, on the different sorts of leeks and onions, and does great damage among the white onions".

The maggot is conical, white, and smooth. It will never make its appearance, if, at the time of sowing, a little of the lime from the dry purifiers of the gas-works be dug in and a less quantity raked in with the seed. This may now be obtained almost in every district of Great Britain; but should it be neglected, or not obtainable, soot applied in the same mode, with the addition of one or two plentiful waterings, during April and the present month, with strong soapsuds, will generally prevent the evil. - Johnson's Gard. Almanack.

A. lactucae, Lettuce fly. Mr. Curtis says, "The larva; first make their appearance in August, but they are abundant in September; they closely resemble those from the Cabbage and Turnip, being of a yellowish-white colour, tapering towards the head, which is pointed, and armed with two short, black claws at the nose.

"These maggots live in the involucra of different varieties of Lettuce, feeding upon the grains and receptacle; and when these are consumed they wriggle themselves out backward, either to enter another seed-vessel or fall to the ground and become pupae.

"When the seed-stems are gathered and dying, the larvae change to pupae, called shucks in Surrey, being bright chestnut-coloured, oval cases, which are rough when viewed under a lens, with two minute tubercles at the head, and two hooks and a few other tubercles at the tail.

"In the second week of May a few of the pupae hatch; they have, however, been observed as early as April, and as late as July. The male is intense black, clothed with short hair and bristles; the eyes reddish-brown and meeting above; face inclining to chestnut colour, with a bright spot of the same on the crown; the fore part of the trunk bears four varying whitish stripes; the body is ashy grey, the segments blackish, at the base a deep black; wings two, stained with black, and beautifully iridescent; the base and poisers ochreous, the nervures of the wings pitchy.

"The female is entirely ashy grey, and less bristly; the eyes not meeting on the crown, with a bright chestnut-coloured stripe between them; body oval, the apex cone-shaped; horns and legs blackish; wings and nervures lighter than in the male, which it equals in size." - Gard. Chron.