PACKAUD.J 



THE WHEAT-THRIPS — THE WHEAT-WORM. 



713 



They were mostly at rest, reclining at full length on the istraw, while 

 only a few were feeding on the ears." 



Larva. — Tbe best marked worms are prettily striped with sulphur-yellow and straw- 

 yellow, and with light and dark brown, as follows: A broad, dark -brown lino along the 

 back, divided along the middle by a line white lino generally obsolete behind ; beneath 

 this broad line on each side a straw-yellow line, half as wide ; then a light-brown one of 

 the same width as the last, and becoming yellow on the lower edge ; then a narrower 

 dark-brown one, containing the white spiracles ; then a sulphur-yellow as wide as the 

 third ; then a less distinct light-brown subventral one, the venter being palo yellow. 

 The head is large, straw-colored, and with two attenuating brown marks from the top 

 to the lower face. The chrysalis is of the ordinary mahogany-brown color, and termi- 

 nates in a stout horny point, with a corrugated base. 



Adult. — The moth has the front wings straw-colored, with a paler line running along 

 the middle to the outer third, and shaded with brown as follows : A shade beneath the 

 white line,. intensified at each end where it joins the white; another, along the poste- 

 rior border, narrow at apex and broadening to the middle, where it projects along the 

 middle of the wing above the white line, fading away toward br.se, and a fainter shade 

 along the front or costal edge, intensifying toward apex. The species is one of the 

 smallest of the genus, having but two-thirds of the size of the army-worm. — (Eiley.) 



The Wiieat-Thkips, Z('»io</inj)s fr(7iVi Fitch.— "Upon the he.ads and stalks in June 

 and July, exhausting the juices of the kernels and rendering them dwarfish and shriv- 

 eled ; exceedingly minute, active, long, and narrow six legged insects, of a bright-yel- 

 low or of a shining-black color." — (Fitch.) 



The wheat- thrips in this country also occurs on the onion, and is 

 described more fully under the head of onion-insects. It represents the 

 Phkcothrqys cenalium of Europe, which does, at times, extensive injury to 

 the wheat, gnawing and puncturing the seed, causing it to shrink and 

 become what the farmers call "])uugled." It also gnaws the young- 

 stalks just above the knots, causing the ear to become abortive. 

 Another species common on wheat in Xew York, in June, is the Three- 

 banded Thrips {CoJcothrips trifasciata) of Fitch. It is nearly double the 

 size of the wheat-thrips, being 0.07 inch in length, and is black ; the dark 

 wings having three broad white bauds across them, while the anteunie 

 arise close together, "and are composed of only five principal joints, 

 of which the two first are short, and a third thicker than the others, 

 which are long and cylindrical, the last one gradually tapering to a slen- 

 der point, its apical portion being divided into small indistinct segments." 



The Wheat- Worm, Anguilluia triiici Bauer. — Filling the cavitiesof a grain of wheat, 

 a white fibrous substance, formed by gluten into balls of a silky nature, which 

 instantly dissolve in w.ater and exhibit hundreds of minute worms, causing the dis- 

 ease called "ear-cockle" or "purples." 



Although this worm has not yet been observed in America so far as 

 I am aware, it is not improbable that this disease occurs with us, though 

 not yet detected. I abstract the 

 following account, often word for 

 word, from Curtis's " Farm Insects." 

 Mr. Curtis took his description of 

 the worm and its iiJihits from 

 Bauer's notes contained in Pro- 

 fessor Henslow's " lieport on the 

 Diseases of Wheat."* 



" The eggs are taken up by the 

 sap from the infected grain wliich 

 may have been planted, and hatch 

 in the stalk as well as in the seed. 

 The largest worms are 4 inch long^'^-^"^''""^ Wheat-Worm, greatly magni- 

 . , t f 11 • 1 ■*! •, 1 ^ f'^(i- «, section of a grain exhibiting some 



at least, of a yellowish- white color, worms and multitudes of eggs, magnified ; 

 and not so transparent as the 6 an egg containing a worm ready to hatch. 

 young worms. Their heads are (From Curtis, after Bauer.) 



' Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, vol. ii, ji. 19. 



