NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Wheat fly. 



ral form, a great resemblance to the gnat. They 

 have a very short membranaceous proboscis, the 

 back of which is grooved, and receives a bristle. 

 The feelers are two, incurved, thread-shaped, 

 and longer than the head j and the antennae are, 

 for the most part, filiform. The larvae are with- 

 out feet, soft, and cylindrical, and those of the 

 larger species feed on the roots of plants, or in, 

 the hollows of decayed trees. Both the larvse 

 and chrysalids of the smaller tipulse are found in 

 water, and are very various both in size and co- 

 lour. Some, like the polypus, are furnished with 

 a pair of arms; and others are inclosed in cylin- 

 drical tubes open at the ends. The latter swim 

 nimbly, but the others always remain in the holes 

 they have formed in the banks of rivulets. Some 

 of the species spin a silken case round part of 

 their body. Their whole frame is, in general, se> 

 very tender that a touch alone is often sufficient 

 to crush them. 



The wheat-fly, a species of the tipulse, is about 

 the twelfth of an inch in length ; its body and 

 legs are of a dull yellow colour, and the wing* 

 are whitish, with a winged margin. The larvae 

 are found in the longitudinal furrow of the grain, 

 to the bottom of which they seem attached. 

 Here probably sucking the milky juice which 

 swells the grain, and thus depriving it of part, 

 and in some cases, perhaps, of the whole of its 

 moisture, they occasion it to shrink up, and be- 

 come what the farmers cull pyngled. They infect 

 several grains in the same ear, and some ears 



