that infejled the Corn in the Tear 1795. 245 



li which was lately found in the ears of wheat, through all its 

 " changes ; but am forry to fay that my relearches have not been 

 " attended with that fuccei's I could wiih. 1 have never met with 

 "it in the ftate of a fmall 'white larva, as you defcribe it to be at 

 " firft. But whenever I have (een it, its firlr. ftate was a very fmall 

 " caterpillar or larva, of a bright yellow colour, which had neither 

 " legs, antenna?, nor wings (See tab. 22, fig. I and 2), and which 

 " changes into an egg-fhaped chryfalis of the fame colour (See tab. 

 ei 22, fig. 3 and 4.). 



% In my former letter to you, I fpeak of this larva as being found 

 *' only between the outer hulks or fcales of the calyx. But this is 

 " not always the cafe; for I have fince found it between the corolla 

 *' and the grain, and even on the grain itfelf; but amongfl the vaft 

 " number of grains which I have examined, I could never clearly 

 " difcover that this infetl had eaten into any of them. I have fre- 

 " quently found it fitting on fine full grain, which did not appear 

 " to be injured in the leaft. Sometimes indeed I found it on grain 

 '* that was blighted, or fhrivelled j hut even then I could not dif- 

 " cover that it was eaten by the infect. In thofe ears where I 

 " found thefe infects (to the number, perhaps, of two or three, 

 *' feldom more, in one ear), the grains were in general full, and not 

 " eaten at all. In one ear, containing 33 grains, I found four of 

 u thefe infeds, three of them on one fmgle grain j yet neither that, 

 " nor any of the other grains in the lame ear, was eaten in the 

 " leaft. In ihort, from all that I have been able to oblerve, I am 

 *' perfuaded that the wheat has received no damage from thefe very 

 4 ' minute infects ; for, being fo minute, they muff abound in im- 

 " menfe numbers to do any material mifchief, even fuppoiing them 

 44 to feed on the grain - r neither of which is, I believe, the cafe 1 

 " for their numbers were, comparatively fpeaking, fmall ; in mod 



" of 



