ff8 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



during the moulting period, I am convinced that what these 

 gentlemen called a "membrane," "web," or "sac," is really 

 the loosened outer skin of the maggot, which is subsequently 

 thrown off in the ears of the wheat, or is cast upon the surface 

 of the ground. 



After shedding its skin, the maggot recovers its activity, and 

 writhes about as at first, but takes no food. It is shorter, 

 somewhat flattened, and more obtuse than before, and is of a 

 deeper yellow color, with an oblong greenish spot in the middle 

 of the body. Within two or three days after moulting, the 

 maggots either descend of their own accord, or are shaken out 

 of the ears by the wind, and fall to the ground. They do not 

 let themselves down by threads, for they are not able to spin. 

 Nearly all of them disappear before the middle of August; 

 and they are very rarely found in the grain at the time of har- 

 vest. Mrs. Gage stated, in one of her letters, that she had not 

 observed "how and when the insects issue from the gi*ain," 

 but that it was "apparent they go in company," and "perhaps 

 they crawl out upon the heads during a rain, and are washed 

 down to the ground, where they remain through the winter." 

 On the fourteenth of August, 1841, she visited again the field 

 of wheat where, on the twenty-fifth of July, she had found 

 great numbers of the maggots, and observed that " a very few 

 of all that multitude were left. On rubbing the ears, their 

 silvery coverings glistened in the sunshine, and floated away 

 on the breeze. A warm rain had fallen between these visits," 

 In an account of the damage done by these insects in Ver- 

 mont, in the summer of 1833, it is stated that, "after a shower 

 of rain, they have been seen in such countless numbers on the 

 beards of the wheat, as to give the whole field the color of the 

 insect."* Mr. Elijah Wood, of Winthrop, Maine, in a short 

 communication, written in the summer of 1837, made the fol- 

 lowing remarks. " This day, 9th of August, a warm rain is 

 falling, and a neighbor of mine has brought me a head of 

 wheat which has become loaded with the worms. They are 

 crawling out from the husk or chaff of the grain, and were on 



* " New England Farmer," Vol. XII., p. 60. 



