PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGY. 1(37 



and transparent wings. It makes its appearance in the winged 

 state' in the last part of June, and the female deposits her eggs in 

 the blossom or on the germ of grain. After laying her complement 

 of eggs, the female dies. The eggs hatch in eight or ten days, 

 producing a very minute orange colored maggot, ■which eats and 

 subsists on the juices of the young grain for about three weeks, when 

 they have arrived at maturity, they wriggle down the stalk into the 

 ground, where they remain during the winter in the maggot state ; 

 change into pupa in May or June of the next spring, and in a few 

 weeks come forth the perfect insect, to renew their devastation and 

 pass through the same changes again. Much has been said and 

 written with regard to this insect, and many methods devised for its 

 destruction, but none seem to have been successful. Of these, may 

 be mentioned ploughing the stubble deep, and burying the maggot, 

 burning the stubble, strewing lime, ashes, &c., on the grain in 

 blossom, and sowing in locations exposed to free currents of air. It 

 is deemed good policy to sow early, and early blossoming varieties, 

 that the chaff and grains may be hardened by nge to resist and be 

 too hard for the insect to pierce and deposit its eggs. 



The Hessian fly (^Cccidoniyia destructor.^ Very small black fly 

 resembling the midge in appearance. The female deposits her eggs on 

 the leaves of grain as soon as the plants appear in spring and autumn. 

 They hatch in a week and the maggot enters the stem where it re- 

 mains till attaining full size in five or six weeks, when it changes 

 into pupa, from which the perfect insect soon comes. There are two 

 or three broods in a year. This is not so destructive as the midce. 

 There are parasites or other insects that prey on the fly and thus 

 assist in its destruction. There is also a parasite or ichneumon, 

 {pJatyglastcr tipiilfv) that preys on the midge, and it is hoped it 

 will become suflSciently numerous to check its ravages. 



