14 BULLETIN 808, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



MANNER OF INJURY. 



Rye plants are affected very much in the same way as are wheat 

 by the wheat jointworm and barley by the barley jointworm. The 

 individual cells or galls in rye (PI. V, A) usually are more clearly 

 defined or outlined than are those of H. hordei. Presumably a seri- 

 ous infestation would cause rye to lodge or fall as badly as barley 

 or wheat, since rye is taller and therefore more top-heavy. The writer 

 has never found a serious infestation of secalis, apparently because, 

 as previously mentioned, no locality has been found where rye is 

 grown consecutively on contiguous areas, in consequence of which 

 secalis is obliged to resort to volunteer plants that spring up in waste 

 places to maintain its existence at all. 



HOST PLANTS. 



After 3 years of repeated trials this species has refused to breed on 

 any plant other than rye. Like vaginicola it prefers young tender 

 plants for oviposition, absolutely refusing to oviposit in large plants 

 or those that have headed. 



/ LIFE HISTORY. 



The writer has had this species under observation since 1912, when 

 the first attempts were made to rear it in confinement. It was reared 

 continuously from that time up until 1916. During 4 consecutive 

 years of breeding only 2 or 3 males appeared among hundreds of 

 specimens all of which were the progeny of 6 female and 4 male 

 individuals with which the series was started in 1912. 



The larvae remain in the old stubble throughout the summer, fall, 

 and winter, pupate in the spring, and emerge as adults about. the 

 middle of May. The egg is shown in figure 8 at h. 



The species secalis has been confused principally with hordei and 

 undoubtedly also with tritici and wehsteH. 



THE RYE STRAW-WORM.1 



The rye straw-worm is another early recorded species, having been 

 first described in 1862 by Fitch (5) under the nnuie Eurytoma hordei. 

 There is no record that it ever caused serious injury to rye, and 

 under the conditions that prevail to-day of scattered cultivation of 

 this crop there seems little prospect that it will become a serious 

 pest. In fact, like several other species, it seems to be having a very 

 hard fight to maintain its existence. F. M. Webster collected weh- 

 steri in Illinois in 1884, and D. W. Coquillett took it in California 



^EarmoUta websteri Howard. 



