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THE FLY, 



The perfect insect is a small four- winged fly, somewhat resembling 

 a wasp but much smaller, and belonging to the same scientific order 

 or Hymenoptera. It is on an average .08 of an inch long, the females 

 measuring .10 and the males .00 or .07 of an inch, the body is slender, 

 straight, the abdomen gradually tapering from the base. The body, 

 head and antennae are black, the wings transparent, both under the 

 microscope showing the presence of short minute hairs. The legs are 

 variable. Out of 4 males and 10 females examined, all the males had 

 all the femurs, or the basal-joints of the legs, yellow, the front tibiae, or 

 second joint yellow, the middle and hind tibiae, yellow at the ends, but 

 the rest dark or fuscous, and the termmal joints of the feet dusky, the 

 others yellow. Six of the females had the femurs of the front legs fus- 

 cous or dusky, basal half of tibiae dusky, terminal joint of feet the 

 same, all the rest yehow. The middle pair all yellow except the termi- 

 nal joints of the feet. The hind pair like the front. Another specimen 

 had all the femurs pale-red and the tibiae all dusky except at the ends, 

 but probably the pale-red was yellow in life, as the poison by which 

 they were killed, (cyanide of potassium) makes that change in yellow. 

 Another specimen had the legs yellow where these were pale-red. 

 Another like the first only the middle tibiae a little clouded at base. 

 In all the specimens the terminal joint of each foot was dusky. The 

 antennae were a little enlarged at the end. 



When the insect had cast off its pupa skin it gnawed a small round 

 hole in the side of the stalk, just large enough to allow it to emerge, 

 but inside the hole was considerably widened in its passage through the 

 soft internal tissue. As the straw or stubble left in the fields through 

 the winter becomes considerably decayed, this will not be a difficult 

 task to those coming out in the spring. 



REMEDIES. 



The applied remedy for the Wheat-stalk worm must, so far as I can 

 see, be the same as for the joint- worm ; that is burning the straw and 

 stubble. When the joint-worm was so destructive to barley in New 

 York a number of years ago, the farmers refrained from raising barley 

 for a year or two, or perhaps in some instances more, and of course 

 they were not troubled with joint- worms in their barley, for a number 

 of years at least. Such a remedy with this insect in the wheat would 

 be like effective, but perhaps need not be resorted to now. If after 

 harvest the straw be spread over the field, and both straw and stubble 

 be burned, that must destroy the worms. As in Southern Ilhnois the 

 weeds grow up rapidly after the wheat is cut, often to such an extent 

 that it would be difficult to burn the stubble by the time the wheat is 

 thrashed, it would be a good idea to run a mowing machine over the 

 ground, allow the weeds to dry, and then burn stubble, straw and weeds, 

 thus rendering the land free of foul growths as well as the next crop 

 free from insects. As in other remedies of this kind, to be effectual, 

 it must be participated in by all the farmers of a community, as the 

 insects can readily fly from field to field. 



