410 RAVAGES OF INSECTS. 



slirivelled, as if deprived of iiourisliment ; and althougli the 

 pollen may furnish the larvas with food in the first instance, 

 they soon crowd around the lower part of the germen, and 

 there, in all probability, subsist on the matter destined to 

 have formed the grain."* 



Another intelligent observer, Mr. Gorrie, of Annat 

 Gardens, Perthshire, found that by the first of August all 

 the maggots leave the ears, and go into the ground about 

 the depth of half an inch, where it is probable they pass the 

 winter in the pupa state. f 



"^"^ -h ' 4 / 





Germination of a grain of wlieat. a, the heart of the grain, the part devoured hy the 

 insect b, bag of the seed, c, tlie root, d, vessels to convey the nutriment for the root. 

 e, feathers conveying the pollen to fructify the seed. 



It is interesting to learn that this destnictive insect is 

 providentially prevented from multiplying so numerously 

 as it might otherwise do, by at least two species of ichneu- 

 mons, which deposit their eggs in the larvas. One of these 

 (^Encyrtus inserens. Late.) is very small, black, and shining. 

 The other (Platygaster Tijmlce, Late.) is also black, with 



* Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist,, Nov. 1829, p. 450. 

 t Ibid, Sept. 1829, p. 324. 



