40 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
many of the maggots developing successfully. They presumably 
succumb to the lack of moisture in much the same way as the 
parent flies. 
The small maggots are at first whitish transparent with a greenish 
tinge, becoming yellowish orange when nearly full grown. They 
obtain their nourishment by absorbing plant fluids from the adjacent 
grains and husks. This drain upon the vitality of the plant reduces 
the size of the kernels of wheat and if the infestation is severe may 
blast a considerable proportion or in extreme cases all the grain. 
The maggots become full grown shortly before the wheat hardens 
and then desert the heads in largenumbers. They wriggle out during 
a rain or when there is a heavy dew, descend the stalks or drop to 
the ground and establish themselves in the upper layers of the soil, 
probably rarely penetrating to more than an inch below the surface. 
Under some conditions considerable numbers of the maggots remain 
in the wheat heads, are carried with the grain to the thrashing 
machine and are thrown out with the chaff. Occasionally these 
yellowish maggots form a considerable proportion of the screenings. 
It willbe seen from the above that the number of maggots in a 
wheat head is variable, much depending upon weather conditions 
immediately preceding. The presence of a large number indicates a 
serious infestation while the absence of maggots is simply of negative 
value. They may have been in the head earlier and deserted it or 
there may have been no infestation. Many shrunken grains or 
empty husks under such conditions is evidence that something has 
prevented the normal development and in not a few cases most of 
the injury may be due to an infestation by the maggots of this midge. 
Wagner, who studied the European wheat midge (tritici) and the 
Moselle midge (mosellana) about 1865, states that flies may be abroad 
for 6 or 7 weeks, that they are active all night and that quack grass 
is a host plant as well as rye and wheat, the Moselle midge apparently 
showing a greater preference for rye than wheat. This last observa- 
tion is hardly confirmed by conditions found in western New York. 
In this connection it should be remembered that infestation is very 
probably proportional in large measure at least to the condition of 
the grain at the time the flies are most abundant. He states that 
these midges begin to oviposit as soon as the heads appear and 
continue until blossoming of the grain, and adds that the two species 
have such similar habits that what is true of one applies largely to 
the other. It follows from the last that American records in regard 
to life history are of most value for our purposes since they relate 
