Gout Fly

(Chlorops pumilionis), an insect of the family Chloropidae. The body is three to five mm long; it is light yellow and has black stripes on the back. The eyes are bright green. The gout fly is found in Europe and Asia (Siberia, the Far East). It does damage to barley, wheat, rye, and sometimes oats, as well as to wild grains. In the USSR it does the most damage in moist regions of the nonchernozem belt.

There are two generations a year. The flies of the first generation deposit eggs on the leaves of spring wheat and barley. The larvae gnaw grooves in the spike stalk from the spike to the first node and pupate in a pseudococoon in the upper internode. The flies of the second generation deposit eggs on the leaves of winter and wild grains; the larvae feed and hibernate inside the stalks, and in the spring they pupate. The stalks of damaged plants are thickened, and the leaves are broadened and slightly corrugated.

Protective measures include early sowings of spring grain and optimal sowings of winter grain, selecting grain varieties with a short ear-formation stage, using fertilizers that accelerate the passage of this critical phase, and treating the crop with dipterex at the time when the flies are in the air.