INSECTS INJURIOUS TO SMALL GRAINS 



133 



though the work of the maggots had probably been noticed as 

 early as 1821 by James Worth of Bucks County, Pa., and by the 

 Michigan Farmer in Michigan about 1845. 



Extending from Dakota and Manitoba to Texas, the range 

 of this insect practically covers all the eastern United States and 

 southern Canada. 



Unlike the Hessian fly it feeds and breeds upon wild grasses and 

 is thus much more difficult to control. Prof. A. J. Cook found 

 the larvae in both 

 barley and oats in 

 Michigan, Prof. F. 

 M. Webster reared 

 an adult from blue 

 grass (Poa praten- 

 sis), and Dr. Jas. 

 Fletcher records it 

 as breeding in 

 Agropyrum, Des- 

 champsis, Elymus, 

 Poa, and Setaria 

 viridis in Canada. 



Life History. 

 Like the Hessian 

 fly the adult flies 

 lay their eggs on 

 fall wheat in Sep- 

 tember and Octo- 

 ber, and the young maggots when hatched work their way 

 down into the stem, either cutting it off or causing it to discolor 

 or die. The eggs are about one-fortieth of an inch long and 

 of a glistening white color. The larvae are a light greenish 

 color, about one-fourth of an inch long, tapering toward the 

 terminal end while subcylindrical posteriorly, being quite elon- 

 gate. The pupae are the same color as the larvae, but more 

 rounded, being only one-sixth of an inch long, and reveal the 

 legs and wing-cases of the imago forming within them. The 



FIG. <>6. Wheat bulb-worm (Meromyzaamericana): 

 "' mature fly; &> larva; c, puparium; d, infested 

 wheat-stem all enlarged except d. (After 

 Marlatt, U. S. Dept. Agr.) 



