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are very liable to break off; the lodging of the grain may, therefore, be largely 
due to the injuries of this insect. In one field just before the harvest I observed 
a large number of isolated straws lying in a horizontal position; there was not 
the general breaking down of the grain characteristic of wind and rain; but 
distributed through the grain that was standing there was a large number of 
isolated straws that were lodged. A careful examination showed that this 
breaking down of the grain, in 45 per cent, of the cases, was directly due to the 
injuries of this insect. In many cases the straws had been broken off a consider- 
able distance above the ground, and before the larva had made the characteristic 
circular cut near the root. An examination of these straws showed that the 
larva had eaten all, or nearly all, of the softer inner part of the straw for a short. 
distance, thus making a weak place which was easily broken. As a rule, how- 
ever, the larva obtains a greater part of its nourishment by tunnelling the joints 
of the straw and does not eat enough of the straw in any place to cause it to 
break until it makes the circular cut near the ground described above. 
After the circular cut has been made, the larva fills the cavity of the straw 
just below it for a short distance with a plug of borings. Between this plug and 
the lower end of the cavity of the straw there is a place measuring about one- 
half inch in length (10 mm. to 15 mm.) It is here that the insect passes the 
winter. Immediately after cutting the straw and making this plug the larva 
makes a cocoon by lining the walls of this space with a layer of silk. This layer 
is thin but very firm and more or less parchment-like ; it can, however, be broken 
with slight difficulty, being somewhat brittle. 
Within this cocoon, which remains in the stubble after the grain is cut, the 
insect passes the winter, in the larval state. It changes to a pupa during March 
or April; and sometime during the month of May the adult insect appears. 
The exact date of the appearance of the insect depends upon the nature of 
the weather. This year from pupe collected on the 23rd of April and brought 
into the Insectary, the adults emerged from the 8th to the 10th of May; while 
the insects left in the fields were ten days later in emerging. 
The adult insect is a four-winged fly belonging to the order Hymenoptera, 
the order that includes the bees, wasps and ants ; and it is a member of the family 
Tenthredinidae of this order, a family comprising the insects commonly known 
as saw-flies. This popular name refers to the fact that in this family the female 
insects are furnished with a more or less saw-like organ. This arises near the 
caudal end of the body, and is the ovo By means of it the insects are 
able to make incisions in the tissues of plants for the reception of their eggs. 
In the Canadian Entomologist, 1890, p. 40, Mr. Harrington records the 
occurrence of this insect at Ottawa, Ont., and also at Buffalo, N. Y. 
THe Hasits or A GrounD-HoRNET.—Stizus speciosus is the largest native 
groand-hornet, and its formidable appearance and great activity generally secure 
it undisputed possession of the square rod where it happens to alight. It is from 
an inch to an inch and one half in length; the head and thorax are brown and 
the abdomen is black with six irregular yellow blotches. These markings are — 
discernible as it flies swiftly about its business and give it a particularly tiger 
like appearance. It seems to be afraid of nothing, and if you walk near its 
burrow it flies with a menacing buzz in circles about you, and its brown, black 
and yellow body gleams in the ‘sunlight. 
In constructing its burrows it usually selects a country road side or a dry 
barren hill, where a freedom from roots makes digging less laborious. 
