REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



173 



Formerly this insect was enormously abundant in the older provinces of Canada, so 

 much so that wheat growing was given up in many sections. Of late years the Wheat 

 Midge almost entirely disappeared from Ontario until the present season, and, although 

 mentioned occasionally by correspondents, no specimens were submitted or those sent in 

 proved to be something else. Wheat Midge injury is probably more wide-spread in the 

 Maritime Provinces just now than in any other part of the Dominion. Mr. Wm. 

 O'Brien, of Windsor, Hants Co., N. S., writes : " The wet weather forced the hay and 

 grain to make very rapid gpowth. But the grain did not appear to fill well, especially 

 wheat and oats. Wheat only about two-thirds filled and very much affected with weevil." 

 At Middle River, Victoria Co., N.S., there was also slight injury by Wheat Midge. 



A restricted but severe outbreak of this insect occurred during the summer of 1898 

 in the Niagara peninsula, Mr. A. T. Small writes : — 



"Beamsville(Lincoln Co., Ont.). — I send youa packet of Wheat Midge sifted from one 

 gallon of tailings, some from each of my two neighbours. One of these, Mr. Tufibrd, a 

 reliable farmer of long experience, who remembers the Midge when it was so bad here 

 25 or 30 years ago and who has done most of the threshing in this locality, estimates the 

 damage at about 25 per cent. He says that all fall wheat had Midge more or less, 

 Dawson's Golden ChaflF and Seneca suffered most. Spring wheat was not affected, but 

 little is grown here. Goose wheat and White Fife were sown last spring." 



Mr. Wolston Small, of Ottawa, who spent the summer of 1898 in the Niagara 

 peninsula, saw the Wheat Midge larvae " so abundant at the time of threshing that 

 the ground beneath fanning mills was quite yellow." He reported the insect as very 

 destructive all along the lake shore in the county of Lincoln. 



The Hessian Fly {Cecidomyia destructor, 

 Say). — This insect has been at different times 

 the cause of serious injury to the wheat 

 crop of all the older provinces, covering 

 practically the same area as the Wheat Midge. 

 The adult is a very small sooty two-winged 

 mosquito-like fly about -g- of an inch long (Fig. 1). 

 The females lay their minute reddish eggs singly 

 or in clusters on the upper side of the leaf. 

 The young white maggots as soon as hatched 

 work their way down to the bases of the 

 leaves, those of the autumn brood becoming 

 imbedded in the crown of winter wheat, and 

 those of the summer brood at the base of the 

 first or second joint of the stem under ihe 

 leaf sheaths ; there they attack the stem, weak- 

 ening it so that it very easily breaks down 

 at the point where the injury occurs. 



When full-grown the outside skin of the mag- 

 gots hardens and turns dark brown in colour, 

 when they bear a very close resemblance to 

 small, slender flax seeds, 

 for which reason the pu pal 

 stage is frequently spoken 

 of as the "flax seed " stage 

 (Figs. 2 and 3). There are 

 two broods in the season ; 

 the fli-es from the autumn 

 brood which winter over 

 in fall wheat appear in 

 May and June, together 

 with some of the flies 

 from the first summer brood which did not 

 emerge in the autumn; the flies of the autumn 



brood appear in August and the early part of j,,^ s.-Hessian Fly : attacked barley sterna: 

 September. The change from the maggot to i, elbowed down; 2, showing "flaxseeds." 



Fig. 1.- 



-The Hessian Fly- 

 natural size. 



-enlarged and 



2. — Hessian Fly : 



pupa-cases or " flax 

 seeds " — natural size 

 and enlarged. 



EO 



