COEN TIIRIPS. 



97 



Corn Thrips. Thn'psc('reuHicin,'H.-<\lid-jiy; T. physapus, Kivhy, 



1 — 4, Corn Thrips, Thrips cerealium (female), nat. size and magnified ; 

 5 — 8, Potato Thrips, T. minutissima, nat. size and magnified. 



The attack of Corn Tbiips is one of those which often does 

 a great deal of harm very quietly, and without the cause of 

 the mischief being suspected, on account of the minute size 

 of the insect, which is scarcely more than the sixteenth of an 

 inch long. 



Thrips are well known to gardeners as being troublesome 

 in frames, and they are also generally well known as the little 

 black speck-like insects often seen wriggling actively about m 

 flowers ; often, too, by the annoyance they cause in hot 

 weather by settling on the face, where they twist in all direc- 

 tions, holding on by their bladder-tipped feet, whence they 

 take their German name of "Bladder-foot." 



With the help of a magnifying-glass the perfect insect will 

 be found to be blackish, a little less than one line long, the 

 abdomen long, narrow, and smooth, with the tip bristly ; 

 the male without wings. The female has two pairs of long 

 narrow wings, fringed with long hairs, and curving outwards, 

 so that when they are laid straight along the body at rest the 

 tips are apart. The feet are very short and stumpy, without 

 claws. 



The two earlier stages of grub and pupa much resemble the 

 perfect insect, excepting that the grub is deep yellow, and has 

 no wings ; the pupa is of a paler yellow, with whitish cases 

 for the wings which are not yet developed. 



The above figure shows the female Corn Thrips at rest, and 

 in the act of flying ; and the figure of the Potato Thrips is 

 added to show the difference in shape of the wingless con- 

 dition. 



The Corn Thrips lays its eggs on Wheat, Oats, and (speak- 

 ing generally) on Corn and Grasses, and the insects may be 



