THE GENESEE FARMER. 



239 



LICE ON GRAIN. 



Eds. Genesee Farmer: — We have just come in 

 >ra cutting wheat. We find it very much injured 

 the fly and the late storms of rain and wind. 

 iere is another little insect we find on the grain, 

 does not appear to have injured the grain much ; 

 it they are on the grain by the hundreds and 

 ousands. The first we noticed them was on the 

 ts last year. They did not seem to have injured 

 at. I send you a head of rye with a few of them 

 . the stem. Perhaps you can give us some ac- 

 unt of them through the Genesee Farmer. 

 Dilhburg, Pa„ July 10, l e 62. JOHN PHALL. 



The insect you send is the u oat aphis" (aphis 

 ence) of Fabrictus. It has been known in Eu- 

 pe from time immemorial. It has occasionally 

 peared in this country, but till last season has 

 ne comparatively little damage. Last year, how- 

 er, it made its appearance in 'different parts of 

 e country in countless myriads. It attacks all 

 rids of grain : rye, wheat, barley and oats; corn- 

 icing with the former, and when the rye gets 

 >e and too hard for them to suck its juices, it at- 

 :ks the more succulent wheat and barley, and 

 tally leaves these for the oats, which are still 

 een. 



As it attacks all kinds of grain, it is now more 

 operly called the "grain aphis" (aphis eerealis). 

 We have not heard many complaints of them 

 is season. We were in hopes that the numerous 

 rasites which preyed upon them last year had 

 pt them in check. James O. Sheldon, Esq., of 

 meva, N". Y., writes us under date July 11, that 

 has made its appearance again on the oats in his 

 ighborhood. 



Dr. Fitch states that one aphis will in twenty 

 xs have upward of two million descendants ! 

 ere it not for the numerous parasites which des- 

 )y them, they would soon overrun our grain 

 ops. Fortunately it has many parasitic foes, 

 ch as the lady-bug, the Chrysopa or golden-eyed 

 3s, the larvae of different Syrphus flies, etc. 

 If you examine a head of wheat invested with 

 ese lice, you will find some that are large, plump 

 .d swollen, of the color of brown paper, stand- 

 g in a position so natural that you suppose they 

 e alive. Touch them with the point of a pin, 

 id you find them dead. Pick off a part of their 

 ittle skin, and you will find inside a white mag- 

 >t doubled up like a ball. If you put one or two 

 ads of this wheat into a vial, closing its mouth 

 ith a wad of cotton, you will find, according to 

 r. Fitch, in a week or less, some little black flies, 

 :e small ants, running about in the vial. They 

 we come out from the dead lice. Drive one or 

 to of these flies into another vial, and introduce 



to them a wheat head having some fresh lice. You 

 will soon see the fly running about among th v m, 

 examining them with its atennro. Having found 

 one adapted to its wants, it dextrously curves its 

 body forward under its breast, bringing the tip 

 before its face, as if to take accurate aim with its 

 sting. The aphis gives a shrug, indicating that the 

 fly has pricked it with his sting and that by this 

 operation an egg has been lodged under its skin, 

 from which will grow a maggot like that first seen 

 inside the dead, swollen aphis. And thus the little 

 fly runs busily around among the lice on the wheat 

 heads, stinging one after another, till it exhausts it9 

 stock of eggs, a hundred, probably, or more, thus 

 insuring the death of that number of lice. And 

 of its progeny, fifty we may suppose will be fe- 

 males, by which five thousand more will be des- 

 troyed. We thus see what efficient agents these 

 parasites are in subduing the insects on which they 

 prey. 



GRAIN APHIS. 



We annex a cut of one of the male aphide9 mag- 

 nified (fig. 1 — 2, natural size). Also of one of the 

 females when punctured and dead (fig. 4, natural 

 size, fig. 3, magnified). 



Figs. 5 and 7 are parasitic flies which sting and 

 destroy these insects, Aphidius avence and Ephe- 

 drut plagiator, as given in " Morton's (English) 

 Cyclopedia of Agriculture." Figs. 6 and 8, natural 

 size. 



■ ■ i m 



Influence of the Moon on Vegetation. — The 

 Boston Cultivator alludes to the investigations of 

 Dr. Bohl in regard to the influence of the moon 

 on vegetation. He found that plants exposed to 

 the moon's rays were not only more vigorous than 

 those partially shaded, but blossomed two or three 

 weeks earlier. 



