Seed-Corn Maggot

(Hylemyia cilicrura), an insect of the family Muscidae; a pest of agricultural plants. The gray body is 3–5 mm long; the wings are translucent. The larva, which reaches a length of 7 mm, is legless and whitish in color.

The seed-corn maggot is distributed in Europe, Asia, and North America; it occurs throughout the USSR. The larvae are more harmful than the adult insects, damaging the swelling seeds and shoots of cucumber, pea, soybean, bean, spinach, watermelon, pumpkin, beet, corn, sunflower, cotton, and other plants. Two or three generations are produced per year in the central zone, and three or four generations further south. The pupae pass the winter primarily in puparia in the soil or in crops. The flies emerge in the spring during the flowering period of birch. Measures to control the insects include fall plowing and thorough application of organic fertilizers, treating the seeds with insecticides before planting, planting during optimum periods, soaking the soil with insecticides during the larval hatching period, and destroying post-harvest residues.