1908 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 131 



sent to lis from Petrolia only. The parent insect is a minute black four- 

 winged fly, belonging to the same order as Wasps and Ichneumons and to 

 a family most of the members of which are parasitic upon other insects. 

 The eggs are laid at or near a joint of the growing wheat plant, and the 

 larva burrows into the stem and causes a gall-like swelling to be produced 

 inside which it lives and feeds. This swelling becomes hard and renders 

 the straw so brittle above and below it that it is frequently broken off in 

 a storm. The hardened portions which remain when the grain is cut are apt 

 to be separated from the straw and to come through the threshing machine 

 with the grain. When winnowed out these fragments with other refuse 

 should be burnt. Most of the galls, however, are left in the stubble and 

 contain the wintering larvae ; in order to destroy these the field should be 

 burnt over in the fall if practicable, or the stubble deeply ploughed under. 

 Usually a short rotation of crops with clean cultivation serves to keep th^s 

 insect in check, and thus we do not often hear of any damage being done 

 by it. 



Indian Corn Insects. The Greasy Cutworm (Agrotis ypsilon) Fig. 37, 

 has severely attacked some fields of corn, cutting off the young plant at the 

 surface of the ground, and also attacking the roots ; and the Glassy 

 Cutworm (Hadena devastatrix) Fig. 38, caused much damage to several 

 acres of corn near Listowel. Other species have seriously injured turnips 

 and wheat in some localities. These night-feeding caterpillars are half 

 grown in autumn and feed voraciously on almost any kind of vegetation that 

 comes to hand in the spring. Fortunately there is a very satisfactory remedy 

 which can easily be applied; it is called the poisoned Bran-mash. It is 

 made by mixing half a pound of Paris green in fifty pounds of bran, stirring 

 constantly and adding the poison little by little; this is sweetened by the 

 addition of two quarts of cheap molasses previously diluted in about a gal- 

 lon of warm water; the whole must be thoroughly mixed to such an extent 

 that the bran will crumble through the fingers and not form hard lumps. 

 The mash is distributed through the infested plot by means of a Planet 

 Junior drill or by hand in the evening, taking care that poultry do not get 

 at it. The worms come out at night and devour it in preference to the plants, 

 and usually go off to die either under the surface of the ground or some other 

 convenient hiding place, so that no dead ones are found lying about in the 

 morning. One who tried this remedy with very much doubt as to its value, 

 unearthed quarts of dead cutworms after a night's application and became 

 thoroughly convinced of its effectiveness. 



The Pea Moth. (Semasia nigricana) Fig. 39, has been troublesome in 

 the neighbourhood of Lindsay. Eggs are laid by the parent moth on the 

 young pods and from these hatch out small caterpillars which make their 

 way inside and devour the peas ; when full grown they leave the pods and 

 form a cocoon beneath the surface of the ground and there remain all winter, 

 the moth coming out the following summer. It has been found that 

 early maturing varieties of peas are free from the attack as they are too far 

 advanced when the eggs are laid, it is therefore advisable to sow as early 

 as possible wherever it is known that there is danger of injury from this 

 insect. In gardens the ground should be dug deeply in the fall^to bury the 

 cocoons so that the moths cannot reach the surface when they come out, 

 and all immature pods shoiild be burnt when the crop has been picked. In 



