51 



fields, however, these damaged and shriveled heads were so numer- 

 ous as to have apparently reduced the crop from ten to twenty-five 

 per cent. ; an injury which the farmers had noticed, but which none 

 had been able to account for to their satisfaction, the presence of 

 the midge having entirely escaped them. The heads upon which it 

 occurred were those which had filled imperfectly- -sometimes con- 

 taining no plump- kernels, and sometimes fairly well filled except at 

 the tip of the ear. 



From the account of its life history, given later, it will be seen 

 that the midge was now near the end of its life above ground, and 

 no doubt by far the greater part of those which had previously in- 

 fested the wheat had already entered the earth. The wet weather 

 of the preceding week had in fact supplied the conditions most fav- 

 orable to this migration of the larvae. 



Ther-e were not, on an average, more than three or four midge 

 larvae to a head, and. these were commonly found on the outside of 

 the glume, only occasionally on the kernel within. The observa- 

 tions here given should at least serve to put the farmers of the 

 northern part of the State on their watchful guard against this in- 

 sect, — ^the most dreaded and destructive foe of spring wheat known 

 to agriculture ; and in the hope of making them personally ac- 

 quainted with this enemy of their harvests, I append here a suffi- 

 cient description and figures to enable the reader to recognize the 

 insect in its various stages, and such an account of its life history 

 as will justify the recommendations made for the limitation of its 

 increase. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Egg. — The eggs, as laid upon the wheat, are scarcely more than 

 a hundredth of an inch in length, about one-sixth as thick as long, 

 of a long oval form, very nearly cylindrical, with rounded ends. 

 Their surface is smooth and shining, and they are almost colorless- 

 watery, with a faint tinge of pale red. When several are together, 

 in a mass, they appear of a deeper reddish yellow color. 



Larva. — The larv^ are, at first, less than a hundredth of an inch 

 long, resembling the egg closely, from which, however, they may be 

 certainly distinguished by the fine transverse lines separating the 

 segments. "When under examination the larva is usually quiescent 

 unless placed in water, when it immediately awakes from its seem- 

 ing sleep. When wet and in motion (alternate contraction and 

 elongation) several parts of its structure not perceptible before are 

 plainly visible. 



The quiescent larva is about three times as long as broad, meas- 

 uring .08 in. by .03 in., and is oval, thickest in the middle and slightly 

 tapering in each direction, the ends being rounded or but faintly 

 angular-pointed. It is slightly depressed and on the under side very 

 perceptibly flattened, but with no indications of feet. Its surface is 

 minutely granular, like that of the common earth wonn of our gar- 

 dens, and also appears to be slightly coated over with a glutinous 

 secretion, whereby it adheres to a needle which touches it, and often 

 when two or more worms are placed in contact they in dying be- 

 come glued to each other. Its joints are indicated by very fine im- 



