126 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



up the stems at night in vast numbers to get at it. - The Rev. G. T. 

 Rudd, when residing at Kimpton near Andover, Hants, where this insect 

 abounds, not only saw it, as did his brother, gnaw off the tip of the husk 

 from the end of a grain of barley, and then gradually draw the milky 

 grain out of its sheath, consuming it as it came forth, till the whole grain 

 had disappeared, and repeating the operation till seven or eight grains had 

 been eaten, but was fully satisfied, on killing and dissecting it, that it had 

 fed on the juicy immature grain. ^ Along with the larvae of this insect 

 were found, in the proportion of about one fourth, those of another beetle 

 (Melolontha rujicornis), which seemed to contribute to the mischief.^ 

 Other beetles, generally supposed to be carnivorous, as Amara communis, 

 trivialis, &;c., are also stated by M. Zimmermann to feed on wheat.^ 



The caterpillars of a moth (Agrotis segetum) occasionally devastate 

 large tracts of wheat and rye by eating the roots, stem, and leaves, in 

 Northern Germany, Prussia, Poland, and Russia'* ; but this species with 

 us is chiefly injurious to turnips, and garden vegetables. 



Mr. Markwick has given us the history of a fly that attacks wheat in a 

 later period of its growth, which, if it be not indeed the same, appears 

 to be nearly related to the Musca pumilionis of Bierkander^ (^Oscinis F.), 

 accused by him of being extremely injurious to rye in the spring. Our 

 insect was discovered on the first-sown wheats early in that season, making 

 its lodgment in the very heart of the jtrincipal stem just above the root, 

 which stem it invariably destroyed, giving the crop at first a most unpro- 

 mising appearance, so that there seemed scarcely a hope of any produce. 

 But it proved in this and other instances that year (1791) that the plant, 

 instead of being injured, derived great benefit from this circumstance ; 

 for, the main stem perishing, the root (which was not hurt) threw out 

 fresh shoots on every side, so as to yield a more abundant crop than in 

 other fields where the insect had not been busy. These flies, therefore, 

 seem to belong to our insect benefactors ; and I should not have intro- 

 duced them here, had it not been probable that in some instances later 

 in the spring they may attack the lateral shoots of the wheat, and so be 

 injurious. It is also not unlikely that the new progeny, which is disclosed 

 in May, may oviposit in barley or some other spring corn, which would 

 bring the next generation out in time for the wheat sown in the autumn. 

 These flies are amongst the last, and, in some seasons, the most numerous, 

 that take shelter in the windows of our apartments when the first frosts 

 indicate the approach of winter, previous to their becoming torpid during 

 that season. When this little animal was first observed in England, it 

 created no small alarm amongst agriculturists, lest it should prove to be 

 the Hessian Jly, so notorious for its depredations in North America ; but 

 Mr. Marsham, by tracing out the species, proved the alarm to be unfound- 



' Ent. Mag. ii. 182. 



* Germar's Mag. der Ent. i. 1 — 10. Mr. Stephens, in his Illustrations of British Ento- 

 mology (No. I. p. 4.) very judiciously asks, "May not these herbivorous larvae have been 

 the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while those of the Zabrus contributed 

 rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy the corn ? " But this query does not account 

 for their being found, when in the perfect state, attacking the ear. I have seen cognate 

 beetles devouring the seeds of umbelliferous plants, 



3 Silbermann, Rtv. Ent. ii. 201. 



« Eollar on Ins. injurious to Gardeners, ice. 04 — 101. 



* Act. Stockh. 1778, 3. n. 11. and 4. n. 4. MarshaiD in Linn. Trans, ii. 79. 



