WHEAT-BULB FLY. 



31 



hay to slip down amongst them, it would be well for the owner or a 

 superintendent to examine into the state of this footing, before a new 

 stack is built on the site of an infested one, and attending to the state 

 of the case as circumstances directed. 



In the south-west of Gloucestershire, where for a long series of 

 years I constantly saw the haystacks on the family property, I cannot 

 remember ever seeing or hearing of this attack either on the home farm 

 or those of the tenants, and there the hay was customarily much more 

 liable to be over- than under-heated, this up to danger of firing, as 

 shown by the stacks having, as no uncommon thing, to be partially 

 unmade to cool, or by the black colour (showing a scorch had occurred) 

 when cut for use. 



Common-sense measures, such as throwing quick-lime or gas- 

 lime, or running a band of tar on the ground, or some waste material 

 round the stacks, from which the Mites drop in great quantities, suggest 

 themselves. The Mites would thus be prevented straying about in 

 legions to continue infestation ; but in the light of the information 

 received when these pages were passing through press, it may turn 

 out that (if thought worth while) measures may be taken in the field 

 towards preventing transit of Mites to the stack, 



Wheat-bulb Fly. HyUmijia coarctata, Fallen. 



Wheat-bulb Fly {Hylemyia coarctata), magnified, and lines showing nat. size; 

 maggots and chrysalids, nat. size and mag. ; mouth apparatus, and extremity of 

 tail, with tubercles, mag. ; infested plant. 



The only one of our commonly observable Wheat- and Barley- stem 

 attacks which has very noticeably held its ground during the past 

 season (that is, so far as is shown by amount of observations forwarded) 

 is that of "Wheat-bulb maggot, Corn Sawfly was not noticed as 



i 



