Report of tee State Entomologist, 149 



attack resembles that of the Hessian fly, Gecidomyia destructor — a 

 more common and better known insect. The two, however, need not 

 be confounded. 



While the joint-worm is imbedded within the straw, the larva of the 

 Hessian fly invariably lives outside of it, between the straw and the 

 sheath, at the joint. The "flaxseeds " which are found in this position 

 are the larvps of the Hessian fly transformed into pupse, and are unfor- 

 tunately, too familiar to many of our farmers. 



Joint- worm Injuries. 

 It is a destructive insect, not only to wheat but also to rye and 

 barley. A few years prior to 1829 and 1830, when the first notices 

 were published of it, it had proved so injurious to barley in some 

 portions of Massachusetts _as to comj)el the abandonment of the culti- 

 vation of that crop. Many fields failed to yield the amount of seed 

 sown. Dr. Harris described the new insect, in 1830, and named it 

 from the plant on which it occurred, hordeum being the Latin name 



for barley. 



Its Further History. 



Its early history is detailed in Harris' " Treatise on Insects Injurious- 

 to Vegetation," pp. 551-561. Its ravages did not long continue in 

 Massachusetts, for after the year 1831 it ceased to attract particular 

 attention. Later, it became destructive in Virginia, where it occa- 

 sioned such serious losses that, in 1854, a " joint-worm convention " 

 was held at Warrenton, to discuss the insect and learn the best 

 remedies that could be employed against it. 



In 1852, it was observed in some of the central counties of the State 

 of New York, when it was brought to the notice of Dr. Fitch, Ento- 

 mologist of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, who gave it careful 

 study, and in 1859, from variations in colors of specimens examined, 

 named and described as new species, Eurytoma tritici and Eurytoma 

 fulvipes — the first from wheat, the other from barley. Later, from 

 specimens infesting rye in Eastern Pennsylvania, he described Eury- 

 toma secalis. But each of the above three (for an account of which see 

 his Seventh Report on the Insects of New York, published in the Trans- 

 actions of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, vol. xxi., 1862, pp. 830-851) 

 have been pronounced only colorational varieties of Isosoma hordei 

 CHarris).* See Walsh-Eiley in American Entomologist, i, pp. 152-153. 



* If the antennal features of the "yellow-legged barley-fly," Eurytoma fulvipes, have 

 been correctly given by Dr. Fitch, namely: In the male "the antennas are thread-like 

 or of eaual thickness through their whole length, and thinly bearded with short robust 

 bristles," whereas, in Isosoma hordei, "the joints are surrounded by whorls of hairs" — 

 then Isosoma Julvipes will be entitled to retain its designation as a valid species. It 

 does not appear that it has been observed since its description," • 



