WHEAT-WORMS. 455 



1840 ; and he confirms the statements of others, that these 

 worms devour the grain when in the milk, and also after 

 it has become hard. In the autumn of 1838, the Rev. 

 Henry Colman observed the same insect in the town of 

 Egremont, in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. It was sep- 

 arated from the wheat, in great quantities, by threshing and 

 winnowing the grain.* 



On the 26th of September, 1846, my brother brought 

 to me a sample of wheat-ears, from Dixmont, Maine, con- 

 taining five of these insects, of different sizes. The largest 

 measured five eighths of an inch in length, when fully ex- 

 tended. It was a very slender caterpillar, having sixteen 

 legs, and was not a true span-worm either in structure or 

 motions. It was of a pale reddish-brown color, with three 

 longitudinal paler or colorless lines on the back, and a 

 broader pale stripe on each side of the body. The head 

 and the tops of the first and last segments were shining 

 brown. A few minute black points (each furnishing a short 

 inconspicuous hair) were regularly disposed on each seg- 

 ment. The body beneath and all the legs were pale brown- 

 ish-red. Many of the kernels of wheat had been gnawed 

 by these caterpillars ; but they refused to eat any more, and 

 died without change. In the summer of 1850, Dr. Ovid 

 Plumb had the kindness to send to me some younger speci- 

 mens of these caterpillars, from Salisbury, Connecticut, where 

 they had long prevailed in the wheat-fields; and I saw 

 them in the wheat at the same place, on the 25th of July, 

 1851. They had grown only to the length of three six- 

 teenths or one fourth of an inch at most ; but they resembled 

 the larger specimens from Maine in all essential particulars. 

 They were too young and delicate to survive the effects 

 of a journey without fresh food, which could not be pro- 

 cured for them after my return. When disturbed, they 

 readily suspended themselves by a slender thread, were very 

 uneasy on being taken from the ears, and were quick in 



* Second Report on the Agriculture of Massachusetts, p. 99. 



