216 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4-5 EDWARD VII., A. M)\J9 



occurred. Immediately on receipt of the samples aai article was prepared for the 

 Province newspaper of Vancouver, B.C., in which the insect was described and the 

 best steps to take were mentioned, so that as much as possible loss might be minimized 

 in the future. The "Wheat Midge possibly attacks some grasses, but has never been 

 detected, as suggested above, on barley nor upon oats^ and peas. 



The Wheat Midge and its attack are thus described in my report for 1888, page 

 49, which I reprint here, as I have nothing further to add to it in the way of useful 

 information : — 



' The Wheat Midge is more widely known in Canada under the inaccurate desig- 

 nation of ' Weevil,' a term which must be discouraged, because it belongs to another 

 class of insects altogether. The weevils are hard-shelled beetles, with elongated snouts, 

 while the Wheat Midge in its larval stage is a legless maggot, and, when in the per- 

 fect state, a delicate gnat-like creature with gauzy wings. The life history of the 

 Wheat Midge, as at present understood, is as follows: — During the month of June, 

 just when wheat is in blossom, tiny yellow midges with black eyes and yellow bodies 

 may be seen flying over the fields, particularly on dull days or towards evening. Large 

 numbers of the same midges may also be seen in houses as soon as the lamps are 

 lighted. These are the Wheat Midge and the parents of the Eed Maggot of wheat. 



* The body of the female fly is prolonged into a long slender tube which can be 

 extended or drawn in at pleasure. With this tube, which is called the ovipositor, she 

 pushes her minute eggs down between the chaff of the green wheat ear. In about a 

 week these eggs hatch into small transparent yellowish maggots, which at once attack 

 the forming grain. Gnawing through the outer skin of the kernel of wheat, they 

 extract its juices and prevent it from filling out properly. As these larvae grow older, 

 they gradually become darker in colour until they acquire the tint which has given 

 them the name they are best known by in England, " the Red Maggot of the wheat" 

 Grain injured by the Midge has a characteristic shrivelled appearance, known amongst 

 millers as '' fly struck." There are ^sometimes four or five maggots to each grain in an 

 ear.* As soon as the maggots are full grown they either work their way up between 

 the scales of chaff and fall to the ground, or remain in the ears until the crop is car- 

 ried. Those which fall to the gi'ound — and these are by far the most numerous — 

 p.enetrate about an inch beneath the surface, where they spin a small cocoon of exceed- 

 ing thinness, which fits so closely to their bodies that it is sometimes thought to be 

 only the skin hardened, in the same manner as takes place in the case of many other 

 flies when tliey pass through their pupal or quiet state. It was generally supposed 

 that the perfect flies from these pupa? did not appear until June in the following year. 

 This, however, is not always the case, for, on a warm, damp evening in August, and 

 again in the beginning of September, 1888, large numbers flew into my study and were 

 killed at the lamp. Prof. F. M. Webster, a special agent of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, on one occasion bred considerable niimbers of perfect Midges in 

 the month of July, from heads oi wheat which had been badly attacked by the red 

 maggots during the previous month; and, off and on, during the rest of the summer 

 until ISIovember, he caught the perfect insects at large. In the report of the United 

 States Entomologist for 1884 the same observer records as follows : — " From September 

 4 to 15, I no't only found larvee in considerable abundance inider the sheaths of volun- 

 teer wheat, but adults too in the same situation, and also on the outside of the plant 

 or hovering above the upper leaves. From a quantity of this wheat placed in a breed- 

 ing cage, on September 7, appeared three or four adults." Not only, then, did these 

 maggots of June produce perfect flies that same summer, but there was a second brood 

 which had time to lay eggs in the young fall wheat. That this insect has a double 

 life history, living both in the ears and later in the season in the shoots of young 



♦There were from 10 to 15 in almost every instance with each grain in the heads sent from 

 British Columbia this year. 



