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THE FLY-WEEVIL. 



76 



1 



emitted fifteen or twenty of them, and otliers appeared 

 extremely lank in their little trunks, which I could not 

 make difchargc any thing like an egg. Whether they had 

 done this in the field before, or were of the male kind, I 

 could not tell, but from this difcovery I find in my diary, 

 many years ago, this conclufion, " that there need not be 

 above two or three flies to an ear of corn, to lay eggs 

 enough to deftroy the greateft crop." 



I muft obferve, at that time, that the bloom or farina 

 of the ears had for fosne days difappeared, and the grain 

 was nearly filling, though in a kind of milky ftate; and 

 at fuch a time the huiks or capfides are generally fufficicnt— 

 ly open to admit the entrance of fuch flies j for I imagine, 

 that as nature certainly intends that farina to impregnate 

 the grain, and as that could only be done by its falling 

 "nto the caplule, ftie muft neceflarily favour fuch a procefs 



by opening the mouths of thofe veffels. 



Some agree with me, that the fly does not perforate the 

 grain, but they (ay it lays its eggs upon the top of the huflc, 

 and when they are hatched into maggots, thofe eat through 

 the huflc into the grain; but I muft think fuch a fuggeftion 

 certainly liable to many objedions, even in the pea, from 

 wj^cnce fuch gentlemen have drawn their arguments : The 

 egg of that bug, they tell us, is laid upon the back of the 

 pod, next the pea; and from thence it hatches, and eats 

 through the pod into the pea. The fettling of fuch a point 



feems to be of little confequence, but to juftify nature or 

 providence in the wifdom as well as perfection of its modes. 

 Can it then be prefumed that an infeft fliould, by particular 

 inftinft, be directed to depofit its eggs for its fpecies into 

 a proper nidus, which flaould be alfo a pabulum for the 

 young as that egg hatches, and yet that they ihould only 

 be permitted to do this upon the outfide of the coat of the 

 nidus, from whence it may be liable to be removed by num- 

 berlefs accidents? For where one egg only is laid, the vif- 

 cus matter that might furround it, cannot reafonably be 



thought a cement fufficient for a grain or huflc in adual 



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