90 



CORN AND GRASS. 



they may be found resting on the lower part of the culm 

 of Wheat, with their heads downward, flying about, however, 

 in great numbers near the ground when the stems are shaken. 



Cecidomyia tritici : 1, 6, infested floret; 2, 3, larvfc ; 4, 5, cased larva3 or 

 pupsL', nat. size and maguitied; 7 and 8, part of horns, magDified ; 9, 10, Wheat 

 Midge, nat. size and mag. 



The females (see fig.) are furnished with a long ovipositor, 

 as thin as a hair, which they can extend at pleasure, and thus 

 insert their eggs inside the florets. The eggs are oblong and 

 transparent, and (with the help of a glass) may be found in 

 little patches of from one up to twenty in number. 



The maggots have been found ten days after the deposit of 

 eggs was observed, some with their heads in the woolly top of 

 the germ of the future grain, some inside the sheaths of the 

 flower. 



The following notes from personal observation, sent me in 

 1883, by Mr. Eussell Swanwick, from the Eoyal Agricultural 

 College Farm, Cirencester, are valuable in showing the time 

 of day of appearance of the " Midge," and also the great 

 amount of infestation which may take place from neighbouring 

 land : — 



" The day before yesterday (July 1st), I examined some 

 heads, and found a good many very small Wheat Midge grubs 

 crawling about, chiefly inside the outside chaff, but very few 

 actually attacking the grain, which was just beginning to 

 form. There were a large number of Wheat Midges flying all 

 about amongst the Wheat-stalks, but being rather early in the 

 evening they had not mounted to the heads. 



" I then searched the hedge-sides, amongst the grass, and 

 found it as full of them as the Wheat. Wishing to know 

 whether this was their hatching-place, or whether they came 

 from an adjoining field, which is now Clover, but which had 

 been Wheat the previous year, I went into this field, and at 

 once observed a cloud of Midges rise when disturbed, which 



