Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2009
Larvae of a flea-beetle, Chaetocnema arida, were found mining in the stems of young barley shoots in June 1939.
Chlorops pumilionis larvae infested barley most heavily in fields where Agriotes larvae were doing most damage. The Chlorops adults showed marked sexual dimorphism in both size and colour. The size range for this species is correlated with a proportionate size range in its parasites Coelinius niger and Stenomalus micans. Perforations 1·3 mm. in diameter in the top of a cage were sufficient for the escape of Stenomalus but not of Chlorops or Coelinius.
Lasiosina cinctipes larvae were commonly synoecious with Chlorops in barley shoots, but in some cases (5–10 per cent.) they were living without Chlorops. In these shoots the nodes were not swollen as in Chlorops infestation. Lasiosina was not attacked by the above parasites of Chlorops.
The larvae of Elachiptera cornuta infested shoots already badly damaged by other species and were accompanied by many Lasiosina larvae. Wet weather in July favours these two species. Their puparia differ in the form of the posterior spiracles. Elachiptera also occurred in maize and wheat.
Meromyza saltatrix var. nigriventris was present in stunted barley shoots in small numbers, producing swelling of the nodes very like that due to Chlorops. The summer pigmentation in both these species in Hampshire differed from that reported by Mesnil in France. Meromyza was also bred from wheat. Meromyza puparia, unlike those of Chlorops, were attached to barley sheathing-leaves by silk.
Oscinella frit larvae, infesting young sweet maize shoots at Gosden, Surrey, were either accompanied or followed by those of Aphanotrigonum trilineatum and Elachiptera. Infesting oat shoots at Long Sutton, Hampshire, Oscinella frit larvae were accompanied by larvae of Lasiosina and Camarota curvinervis. Adults of the latter emerged from stunted barley shoots in September. They showed some resemblance to flea beetles, possibly protective. Oscinella frit was also bred in small numbers from stunted wheat and barley shoots. The Chalcid, Callitula pyrrhogaster, was reared from pupae of this species found in oat shoots.
Larvae of a Muscid, Hylemyia (Phorbia) genitalis, infested a winter wheat crop in large numbers in May 1940. Tropidoscinis albipalpis, Oscinella? gracilior and Agromyza nigripes, were bred in small numbers from potted plants of this crop kept in a cage in the laboratory during the summer. Hylemyia genitalis and Agromyza (Domomyza) ambigua pupated in the soil surrounding the roots of these plants. The adults (together with a Braconxd parasite, Phaenocarpa pullata, Hal.) emerged from the soil in the following spring.