124 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



one-tenth inch long, so small as to commonly escape observation. 

 Each female lays 100 to 150 minute reddish eggs, one-fifteenth 

 inch long, placing them in irregular rows of from three to five or 

 more, usually upon the upper surface of the leaves. In a few days 

 these hatch into small, reddish maggots, which soon turn white, 

 are cylindrical, about twice as long as broad and have no true head 

 or legs. The fall brood of maggots burrow beneath the sheaf of 

 the leaf and its base, causing a slight enlargment at the point of 



FIG. 90. The Hessian fly (Mayetiola destructor): a, female fly; b, flaxseed 

 stage or pupa; c, larva; d, head and breast-bone of same; e, pupa: 

 /, puparium ; g, infested wheat-stem showing emergence of pupae and 

 adults. (After Marlatt,, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



attack; but in the spring they usually stop at one of the lower 

 joints, in both instances becoming fixed in the plant, absorbing 

 its sap and destroying the tissues. The first indications of the 

 work of the maggots on winter wheat in the fall are the tendency 

 of the plants to stool out, the dark color of the leaves, and the 

 absence of the central stems. Later many of the plants yellow 

 and die. The spring maggots attack the laterals, or tillers, w r hich 

 have escaped the previous brood, so weakening them that the 



