310 The Joint Worm, 



shell, or skin, ^vill be seen protrudinc: from the ground. In other 

 cases, the fly issues from its pupa skin in the earth, and comes to 

 the surface with flabby wings, which soon expand and dry on 

 exposure to the air. This last change occurs mostly in ihe months- 

 of June and July, when great numbers of the flies have been seen 

 apparently coming from the ground in fields where grain was 

 raised the year before. 



"The Wheat Midge, or Fly, " is a small orange-colored gnat, with 

 long slender pale yellow legs, and two transparent wings reflecting 

 the tints of the rainbow, and fringed with delicate hairs. Its eyes 

 are black and prominent ; its face and feelers yellow ; its antennae 

 long and blackish. Those of the male are twice as long as the 

 body, and consist of twenty-four joints, which, except the two basal 

 ones, are globular, surrounded by hairs, and connected by slender 

 portions like beads on a string. The antennae of the female are 

 about as long as the body, and consist of only twelve joints, which, 

 except at the base, are oblong-oval, somewhat narrowed in the 

 middle, and surrounded by two whorls of hairs. These insects 

 vary much in size. The largest females do not exceed one tenth 

 of an inch in length, and many are found towards the end of the 

 season less than half this length. The males are usually rather 

 smaller than the female, and somewhat paler in color." Mr.. 

 Lindsley sent several of these insects to the Patent Oflace in Au- 

 gust last, and stated that they have been extremely destructive 

 in several parts of his district last year, (1854,) and that in some 

 places the cattle where turned into the field in order to eat the 

 straw and what little was left of the grain, the main crop not being 

 worth the trouble and expense of harvesting. These flies are like- 

 wise said to be much more nmnerous and destructive on the edges 

 of fields than in the centre, and in -some cases when the edges^ 

 were completely worthless, the centre bore comparatively a good 

 crop. 



" Fumigation with sulphur and burning weeds on the windward 

 side of the field, when the grain is in blossom, has been recom- 

 mended. Air-slacked lime or wood ashes, strewn over the grain 

 when in blossom, in the proportion of one bushel of lime or ashes 

 to be scattered over the field when the plants are wet with dew or 

 rain. Two or three applications have sometimes been found 

 necessary. Ploughing up the ground also to destroy the maggots^ 

 and the dust-chafi", or refuse straw, if found to contain any of. 

 these insects, should be immediately burned. In those parts of 

 New England where these insects have done the greatest injury, 

 according to Dr. Harris, the cultivation of fall-sown or winter-grain 

 has been given up, and this for some years to corae will be the 

 safest course." 



THE JOINT WORM. 



"The Joint Worm, (Euryioma hordei,) see plate, now committing 

 such ravages in the wheat fields of Virginia, is a small, black, four- 

 winged fly, about an eighth of an inch in length. The female 



