22 
the fact that, as far as known at present, serious damage by this 
insect in fall has been confined to wheat sown early in the sea- 
son. 
Furthermore, this species passes the midsummer period one stage in 
advance of the Hessian fly, the latter summering as larva or pupa 1 and 
the bulb worm as an adult; and as the ‘‘fly” is known to improve 
the earliest opportunity for oviposition afforded it, there is a still 
stronger probability that the Meromyza will be even more inclined 
to a prompt deposition of its eggs than the former species. From 
these eggs the worms hatch in September and October, doing usually 
much damage to wheat in fall, but continuing the work in 
spring. By the middle of April, they commence to pupate, but do 
not all complete this transformation before the middle of May. The 
pupal state lasts about a fortnight, the flies emerging from May 1 
to June 1, or thereabouts. 
Late in May and early in June the eggs for the next brood are 
laid under and about the sheaths of the upper leaves of the now 
heading wheat and rye; and these hatching, the larve of the second 
brood make their way inward to the tender base of the young pedi- 
cel of the head, just above the upper joint. Here they may be found 
feeding on the tissues of the stem from the middle of June to the 
first of August, by which latter date all have pupated and most 
have transformed to winged flies. These have been seen to emerge 
from the pupa at intervals from July 4 to August 5, and, in all 
probability, then remain in waiting for an opportunity to lay their 
eges on the earliest wheat to appear.* 
INJURIES TO WHEAT. 
The wheat fields first visited afforded an excellent example of the 
amount and method of the injury to wheat done by the winter brood 
of the larve. At a little distance, the whole surface of this field 
looked brown and dead, as if killed by freezing; but on close inspec- 
tion a stalk could be seen here and there which still remained green. 
A careful’search revealed the larve in about one stalk in every 
fifteen or twenty, most of those which were thoroughly dead no 
longer containing the insect. Even these, however, if not {oo much 
withered, invariably gave traces of previous injury of the kind dis- 
tinctly visible in the fresher stems. 
Where the larva was still at work, it was found imbedded be- 
tween the bases of the inner leaves, and sometimes quite within 
the stalk, where it had gnawed and torn away the tissues of the ~ 
plant. There was no evidence that the substance of the plant was 
actually devoured; but on the contrary, from the form of the mouth 
*An injury precisely similar to that done to wheat by the wheat-bulb worm, is ex- 
tremely common in blue grass and timothy throughout the State, and may possibly be 
due to this species; but the escape of the insect there is so prompt that I have rarely been 
able to find it in any stage after the injury becomes evident through the whitening of the 
head of grass. Indeed, a single pnpafound beneath the sheath of a stem of timothy which 
had been injured in this w ay, is the only direct evidence I have of the character of the 
insect responsible for this mischief. This pupa was certainly dipterous, and very similar 
in appearance to that of Meromyza, but differed in the proportions of the segments, and 
especially in the size and distinctness of the terminal ones. I am consequently doubtful 
if it was that of Meromyza, but think it more likely that it belonged to a species of Uhlor- 
ops likewise very abundant earlier in the season. On the other hand the great abundance 
of the fly of Meromyzain May, in regions where very little winter wheat and not much 
rye are raised, (as about Normal), makes it almost certain that the larve live in something 
else than these grains. 
