INSECTS ATTACKING WHEAT. 37 



ter not only kills the living Wheat-straw Worms which escaped 

 the attacks of the parasites, but it does not destroy the helpful 

 parasites. 



Kansas Notes. — lu 1885 Professor Snow reported this insect as 

 inflicting serious depredations upon wheat in McPherson, Morris, 

 Oaborne, Ottawa and Saline counties. (Monthly Report Kan- 

 sas Board of Agriculture for June, 1885.) The pest is spoken of 

 in this report as a "new-comer to the State of Kansas." In a 

 brief reference to the insect in the report of the Kansas Board 

 of Agriculture for the quarter ending December 31, 1885, Pro- 

 fessor Snow credits Warren Knaus, of McPherson, an entomolo- 

 gist of repute, with saying, "that according to his observation 

 fully one-half of the larvae and pupse of this Wheat-worm have 

 been destroyed by this parasite, a species of the genus Ptero- 

 maliis." 



In a bulletin of this Department, issued in February, 1892, 

 observations on the presence of this pest in Kansas in 1891 are 

 presented. The insect was quite prevalent in central and west- 

 ern Kansas, Barton, Russell, Osborne, Rice, Ellsworth, Rush and 

 Lincoln counties being especially infested. 



Doubtless much damage is annually done to the wheat crop of 

 Kansas by this insect ; a considerable part of which damage is 

 popularly accredited to the Hessian Fly. 



WHEAT-HEAD ARMY- WORM. 



{Leucania albilinea Guen; Order, Lepidoptera.) 



Diagnosis. — The kernels of wheat are eaten out of the heads, 

 leaving a head of chaff! The ground at the foot of the plants is 

 frequently covered with chaff*. A brown and pale-yellow cater- 

 pillar, about one inch long, feeding on the heads at night. 



Description and Life-history. — The adult form of this ineect is 

 a yellowish and white moth, expanding about IJ inches; front 

 wings, pale straw ; hind wings, satiny-white. The larva or cater- 

 pillar, in which form the insect commits its depredations, is, when 

 full-grown, rather more than an inch in length ; colors, pale yel- 

 low and brown ; along the back there is a brown median line ; on 



