324 



broods of larvte found by liim was "in the culm near the root," where 

 they "cause an enhirgement of the stem," and Mr. Muse states that the 

 larviB producing his species of Tenthredo "burrow in the stems and 

 feed upon them." Still, as long- ago at least as 1843 and 1844 there was 

 what, in the light of a recently published article on "Wheat and Grass 

 Saw-flies," * might have been a serious attack of Saw-fly larvte on 

 wheat. A correspondent, "P. C," Penn's Manor, Bucks County, Pa., 

 in the Cultivator,t calls attention to the ravages of a worm about an 

 inch long, its head brownish green, with two brown spots, which as- 

 cended the straws and cut off the heads, soon after the latter had been 

 IKit forth. In some fields one-fifth of the heads had been eaten off, the 

 Mediterranean variety being the most injured. So far as known the 

 ravages had been confined to within a few miles of correspondent's 

 locality. 



A short time ago the writer reared a leaf-miner in wheat, the larva 

 attacking the tip of the larger leaf, the species involved being Ula- 

 ehista prcematurella Clem. And now, through fear of temptations, 

 which might in future influence him to pose as the original discoverer 

 of the first wheat leaf-miner, he proposes to put such an aspiration 

 forever beyond his reach by placing again on record the following 

 letter, first published in 1822 :| 



CuLPEPER County, Woodville, Va., 



May 28, 1822. 

 To the Editor of the American Farmer: 



Dear Sir : Inclosed yon will receive a few blades of wheat, and by examination 

 yon will find that a deposit of eggs has been made by the fly in a mode not hereto- 

 fore mentioned by anyone. 



The germs are now in the maggot state and occnpy an apparently comfortable 

 position in the snbstance of the blade, and most generally the top blade. You will 

 find them between the surfaces, which are membraneous, a fact which I never before 

 observed. As they progress, feeding on the green pulp, they enlarge the cavity or 

 bag and the leaf then exhibits the appearance called "fired," which must proceed 

 either from an absorption or change of the color of the pulp. Whether the season 

 or some adventitious circumstance has produced this aberration, or whether its con- 

 sequences will be more or less injurious to the farmer, must be left for time to dis- 

 close. The injury is most prevalent in rank wheat. 

 Yours respectfully, 



Philip Thornton. 



Just what Mr. Thornton's leaf-miner was we may never know, but 

 it must certainly have been a leaf-miner and not, as he supposed, the 

 Hessian Fly. 



Speaking of the Hessian Fly, Cecidomyia destructor, reminds me that 

 the modern entomologist is liable to make a considerable number of old 

 discoveries. When we figured and described the effect of the fly on 

 young wheat in the fall, in 1887,§ we fully believed we were the first to 



* Insect Life, Vol. 4, pp. 168, 179. 



t The Cultivator, Albany, N. Y., N. S., Vol. 2, p. 148, 1845. 



t American Farmer, Vol. 4,p. 183. 



§1 Circular No. 2, Purdue University, Agricultural Dept., Nov. 21, 1887. 



