INSECTS INJURIOUS TO SMALL GRAINS 133 



considerable extent, to the fact that large numbers of them are 

 destroyed by a small hymenopterous parasite, known as Ccelinus 

 meromyzce Forbes, which very commonly infests the larvsR, and 

 by other parasites and predaceous insects. 



Rarely will these pests do serious damage, but very often 

 it is sufficient to merit consideration, and only a knowledge of 

 their life history can give a key to their successful control. 



The Wheat-midge * 



History. While the Hessian fly attacks the stalk of the 

 wheat-plant, another species of the same family, known as the 



\ 



FIG 114. Wheat-midge (Diplosis tritici): a, female fly; 6, male fly; c, larva 

 from below. (After Marlatt, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



Wheat-midge, or "Red Weevil/' often does very serious damage 

 to the maturing head. It, too, is a foreigner, having first been 

 noticed as injurious in Suffolk, England, in 1795, though probable 

 references to its depredations date back as early as 1741. "In 

 1 Ellis's Modern Husbandman ' for 1745 the attacks of the vast 

 numbers of bjlack flies (the ichneumon parasites) are noticed 

 in the following quaint terms: 'After this we have a melancholy 

 sight, for, as soon as the wheat had done blooming, vast numbers 

 of black flies attacked the wheat-ears and blowed a little yellow 

 maggot which ate up some of the kernels in other parts of them, 

 and which caused multitudes of ears to miss of their fulness, acting 



* Diplosis tritici. Family Cecidomyiidce. See Bulletin No. 5, Vol. I, 2d 

 Ser., Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta., F. M. Webster. 



