IK8EC"1S INJURIOUS TO WHEAT. lU 



always more or less injured. No effect of climate, 

 meteorological conditions, or natural enemies could have 

 brought about such a contrast of results. The whole 

 secret was in the management of the soil and the seeding." 



Some Wheat-maggots. 



Very similar in its mode of injuring the wheat-stalk to 

 the Hessian Fly is the Wheat Stem-maggot {Meromyza 

 mnericana Fitch). The adult flies were first described by 

 Dr. Fitch in 1856, tliough 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 Hessia7i 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. Webster reared an adult from Blue Grass 

 {Poa prate7isis), and Dr. Jas. Fletcher records it as breed- 

 ing in Agrojyijrum, Descliampsis, Elynius, Poa, and 

 Setaria viridis in Canada. 



Life-history.— lii\e the Hessian Fly the adult flies lay 

 their eggs on fall wheat in September and October, 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 larvse are a light 

 greenish color, about one-fourth of an inch long, tapering 

 towards the terminal end while subcylindrical posteriorly, 

 being quite elongate. The piipi^ are the same color as the 



