45 



also hear of it during- this same year in the State of New York, where 

 stalks of growing wheat containing the larvs^ were sent to Doctor Lint- 

 ner, from Scipioville, in August. Some of these stalks contained 

 larva% and some of the tiies were observed crawling about on the table 

 where the package had been unwrapped, and these were supposed to 

 have emerged from the straws while in transit. Doctor Lintner adds 

 nothing to our knowledge of the species at this time, but gave it the 

 common name of the wheat stem-maggot in preference to Doctor 

 Fitch's American Meromj^za." 



In March, 1883, Dr. S. A. Forbes, State entomologist of Illinois, 

 received information of serious injuries to j^oung wheat in Fulton 

 County, of thpt State, and on investigation found the depredator to l)e 

 a small, slender maggot which attacked the plant just above the root, 

 thereby killing it. Farmers in the infested territor}' had noticed the 

 injury during the preceding November and December, but had not 

 taken steps to learn of its destructive character until, with the coming 

 of spring, the pest seemed to break out anew. From larvtv taken from 

 infested plants from these fields puparia were obtained April 30, and 

 the flies began to appear by May -4, and continued to emerge until 

 June 1, thus showing that the insect might do serious damage to young 

 wheat in the fall, pass the winter in the maggot stage, and resume its 

 work of destruction again in spring. This, taken in connection with 

 what had been observed by Riley and Lintner, showed plainly that the 

 Hies emerging in May and June oviposited in the growing stems of 

 the wheat, and the larviie hatching from these eggs entered the stems 

 just above the upper joint. Doctor Forbes, in his thirteenth report as 

 State entomologist, gave full details of his observations and called 

 attention to the possibility of a third brood developing in midsummer, 

 and also gave the insect the common name of the " wheat-bulb worm."^ 



During the summer of 1884 I was engaged as a special agent of the 

 Division of Entomology, under Doctor Riley, and from June 1 to Octo- 

 ber was located at Oxford, Ind. , engaged in the study of grain insects, 

 especially those attacking wheat. From straws taken from a field near 

 Oxford I reared adult flies up to July 26, and volunteer wheat, taken 

 from this same field September 5 and sent to Washington, gave adults 

 September 11, 13, and 16, according to the divisional notes. During 

 the same year adults were reared from volunteer wheat October 1 and 

 found in the field of young wheat on October 6/' In 1886 Doctor 

 Forbes put the final touch, so to speak, to the settlement of the occur- 

 rence of this midsummer brood by finding both eggs and larvae on 

 August 4 in volunteer wheat, and in his fifteenth report (p. 39) con- 

 structed a calendar showing the periods covered by the several broods. 



«Loc. cit, Vol. XLIV, p. 535, 1879. 



'''iSth Kept. State Entomologist of Illinois, pp. 13-29, 1884. 



'^Rept. U. S. Comm. Agr., 1884, p. 390; Bull. 9, Purdue TTniv., Oct., 1886. 



