WHEAT MIDGE. 9l 



on closer inspection proved to be Wheat Midges. I should 

 estimate them as ten times as numerous as in the Wheat. 



" I have been in the habit of sowing my Grass-seed with the 

 Wheat crop, so as to keep my Barley free of Grass, and hence 

 obtain a better quality ; it is possible that this custom may 

 have rendered me more liable to the Wheat Midge attack than 

 if the Wheat had been sown without seeds, and the stubble 

 had been ploughed in." 



These maggots are lemon or orange-colour, more pointed at 

 the head than the tail, and legless, but wrinkled transversely 

 into folds, by means of which they can wriggle themselves 

 along at pleasure and are very small, only about the twelfth of 

 an inch long. 



When full-grown, some of the maggots go down into the 

 ground, but such as have not left the ears when the corn is 

 cut are harvested with it. This is important as regards 

 treatment, but does not show any variation in the habits of 

 the grub, as, if the corn had been left alone, it would have 

 fallen, and the grubs thus come to the ground in the natural 

 course of things. After a time they may be found in filmy 

 transparent cases (see figs. 4, 6, p. 90), and turn to reddish 

 pupee, lighter at the end of the tail, from which the Midges 

 appear in June. 



The " Midge " is orange-yellow, or ochreous, with black 

 eyes, and (as observable in the magnified figure) the longest 

 vein of the wings is not forked. 



TJie foUoicing observations, on a kind of Cecidomyia which 

 infests Meadow Foxtail Grass, are added because as yet it does 

 not ap2)ear certain tvhcther this is the C. tritici or another sjjecies ; 

 consequently its iwesence may influence infestation in Wheat : — 



Early in the year 1884 I received specimens of larva) from 

 Mr. James Hunter, of Chester, taken from seed-heads of 

 AloiKcurns x>ratcnsis, which proved to be maggots of a 

 Cecidomyia, and very nearly, but not quite, similar to the 

 well-known Bed Maggot of the common Wheat Midge, 

 Cecidomyia tritici; and from further examination during the 

 season it appeared that the Foxtail Grass was subject to 

 attacks of one or more kinds of these Wheat or Grass Midge 

 maggots. They were found by Mr. Hunter badly infesting 

 Meadow Foxtail heads in the neighbourhood of Chester; and 

 Mr. Edw. Baillie (also of Chester), in details of observations 

 with which he favoured me, mentioned that on June lOtli 

 they were noticeable in great numbers in the evening, and 

 again on June 26th, although at 5 a.m. he only secured two, 

 yet in the evening they were plentiful. "I watched their habits 

 closely for a time. I find they rise from the lower leaves, Jly 

 about until they rest eitlier uiwn tJce head or upon the stalk of an 



