34 



AETICLE IL— NOTES ON INSECTS INJUKIOUS TO WHEAT. 



1. The Lakger Wheat Strav/ Worm. 

 (Isosotna grande, Pdley.) 



Order Hymenoptera. Family CnALCiDiDiE. 



In May of this year, Mr. Garman collected from wheat fields in 

 Clark county, in Eastern Illinois, and sent to the Laboratory (where 

 they were received May 21,) straws containing a larva similar to 

 that of Isosoma tritlci, but larger, and evidently differing from that 

 in life history. These were imbedded in the center of the stalk, 

 just above the lowest joint, where they caused a bulbous enlarge- 

 ment of the stem, the plants containing the insects being dwarfed 

 or killed in every case noticed. The fact that the inner surface of 

 the stem containing the larvas had been eaten and torn was plainly 

 perceptible. 



On the 6th of June, the living, winged adults emerged from these 

 examples, and all the remaining straws contained at this time pupae 

 in the pupal envelope. The straws had been kept too dry, however, 

 and the insects had died within them. On the 24th of May, adults 

 of this species were found not uncommon in wheat fields at West 

 Union, and on the 27th at Mount Carmel, in Wabash county, where 

 a few stalks of wheat which had been evidently inhabited by the 

 worm were likewise noticed. At Carmi, in the same county, on the 

 30th, stalks which had been injured by them were again observed, 

 although none contained the larvae ; but several imagos were taken 

 within them, as also at Eldorado on the day following. x\t Villa 

 Eidge, on the 3d of June, many dwarfed stalks of wheat were found 

 in the fields from which this species had apparently emerged, but 

 no specimens were taken here by sweeping. No further observations 

 were made upon this species throughout the year, but I learned 

 from Mr. F. M. Webster, an assistant to the Entomologist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, that he found it after- 

 wards in wheat fields in Indiana, near the Illinois line. 



[From the last Eeport of the United States Entomologist (1884),* 



♦Page 385. 



