48 REPORT OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST I92I 



The heads were examined fresh from the field and it will be 

 noted at the outset that the number of maggots is nearly 30 per 

 cent of the total number of grains of wheat. This is quite different 

 from the approximately 10 per cent of maggots found in the heads 

 collected by Professor Crosby and his associates so late that prob- 

 ably a considerable number of the maggots had an opportunity to 

 escape and others doubtless left the heads between the time of 

 collecting and the several months elapsing before the examinations 

 were completed. 



It will further be noted that among the klondyke samples the 

 number of maggots was approximately 36 per cent of the total 

 grains of wheat; in the red wave 24 per cent; in the iron clad 20 

 per cent ; in the number six 1 1 per cent ; whereas in the white chaff 

 it is a little less than 8 per cent. Too much importance should 

 not be attached to these averages though it was very evident in 

 1 91 8 at least that the softer wheats, such as the klondyke, were 

 much more likely to be badly infested than was the case with the 

 relatively much harder white chaff. 



Investigations, examinations and analyses of samples collected 

 from representative areas throughout the State showed that the 

 infestation of 1920 was markedly less than that for 1919, as the 

 latter in turn was a reduction from that of the preceding year. 

 Repeated examinations of rye fields in Albany, Columbia, Rensse- 

 laer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties in particular indicate prac- 

 tical freedom in 1920 from wheat midge, although in Schenectady 

 county occasional heads were found containing ten or more maggots 

 and in one case thirty-four yellowish larvae were found in one. 

 This last was so exceptional that it can hardily be considered as 

 significant. One field of rye near Lockport, Niagara county, was 

 examined June 24, 1920 and eight to ten maggots were found in a 

 number of heads. This, however, appeared to be unusual for that 

 section. 



Field examinations of wheat in Niagara county, June 24, 1920, 

 resulted in finding in an unusually advanced field some 7 miles 

 northeast of Lockport with a rather general infestation, ten small 

 larvae occurring in one spikelet, eight in another and twenty- 

 five in another. In another field, some 7 miles south of Lockport 

 and in Erie county, thirty-one maggots were found in one head. 

 The infestation appeared to be general around Clarence, Erie 

 county, two to ten small maggots occurring in individual heads. 

 Oviposition was with little question in progress June 24th, and 



