132 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



and are popularly known as saw-flics on account of the saw-like 

 ovipositor of the female, by moans of which she inserts her 

 eggs in the tissue of the plant. This species is quite different in 

 some respects from the saw-flies feeding upon the leaves of wheat, 

 and belongs to the family Cephidce. 



The female commences to lay eggs by the middle of May. 

 By means of her sharp ovipositor she makes a very small slit 

 any place in the stalk of the plant and in this thrusts a small 

 white egg about I /\QQ of an inch long which is pushed clear 

 through the walls of the straw and left adhering to the inside. 

 Though several eggs are deposited in a straw, but one larva 

 usually develops. " The eggs hatch soon after they are laid, 

 and the larvae may develop quite rapidly. A larva which 

 hatched from an egg laid May 13th was found to have 

 tunneled the entire length of the stalk in which it was " on May 

 28th. 



Remedies. " The most obvious method of combating the 

 insect is to attack it while it is in the stubble; that is, sometime 

 between harvest and the following May. If the stubble can be 

 burned in the autumn, the Iarva3 in it can be destroyed. The 

 same thing could be accomplished by plowing the stubble under, 

 which would prevent the escape of the adult flies. But as it is 

 (often) customary ... to sow grass-seed with wheat, it is feared 

 that the plowing under of infested stubble would rarely be prac- 

 ticable; and it is also questionable if the burning of the stubble 

 could be thoroughly done without destroying the young grass. 

 It would seem probable, therefore, that if this insect becomes 

 a very serious pest, it will be necessary. . . either to sow grass- 

 seed with oats and burn or plow under all the wheat stubble, 

 or to suspend growing wheat for one year, in order to destroy 

 the insects by starvation." 



Some Wheat-maggots 



Very similar to the Hessian fly in its mode of injuring the 

 wheat-stalk is the Wheat-stem Maggot (Meromyza americana 

 Fitch). The adult flies were first described by Dr. Fitch in 1856, 



