126 INJURIOUS INSECTS 



"many crops of wheat were hardly worth cutting on ac- 

 count of its attacks, and all that we have seen or heard 

 of, except one, were badly hurt by it." It first began to 

 be observed in that State in 1848, and in subsequent 

 years it increased gradually in numbers. According to 

 Prof. Cabell, of the University of Virginia, the loss occa- 

 sioned by this insect often amounted to one-third of the 

 .average crop, and sometimes much greater; and in 1851 

 "some farmers did not reap as much as they sowed." 

 In 1860 the rye crop was considerably injured by this 

 little pest in Lycoming Co., Pennsylvania; and according 

 to Mr. Norton, the species is very common upon rye "in 

 Connecticut and probably the other New England States." 

 As long ago as 1829, it had been noticed in various parts 

 of the New England States to attack the barley, causing 

 it in some places "to yield only a very small crop, and 

 on some farms not much more than the seed sown;" 

 although since that date it does not appear to have been 

 materially troublesome in that region. But in Central 

 New York, formerly the great barley-growing district of 

 America, it has been ruinously destructive to the barley 

 from 1850 until the present. 



It is a curious fact that so far as can be at present 

 ascertained this destructive insect does not appear to 

 have reached the Valley of the Mississippi. At all events, 

 no complaints from the West of any such attacks as those 

 described above, either upon wheat, rye, or barley, have 

 hitherto been make public. It is very possible, however, 

 that the Joint-worm may have been confounded in the 

 West with the Hessian Fly (Cecidomyia destructor, Say), 

 the larva of which infests the same part of the wheat 

 plant, namely, the space immediately above one of the 

 lowermost knots in the straw. But this last may be dis- 

 tinguished from the Joint-worm by living in the open 

 space between the stem and the sheath of the blade, 

 although it occasionally imbeds itself pretty deeply in the 



