x1] Flies 139 
name of dog-leg, elbowing or “strailed corn.” On one 
of these shoots may be found below the elbowing, just 
above one of the lower nodes and underneath the leaf 
sheath, one or more maggots or pupa cases, usually the 
latter. The maggot is a small whitish, legless grub and 
is easily recognized by a curious process just behind 
the head, known as the breast bone. The pupa cases 
found in the same position as the larvae are usually 
known as flax seeds, which they somewhat resemble, 
but they are considerably narrower. They are j—3, inch 
in length and of a brownish colour. When the wheat 
is cut some of the pupae are carried away in the straw 
and others remain in the stubble. Some of them give 
rise to flies in autumn which lay their eggs on such 
grasses as couch and timothy. In America this brood 
does enormous damage to autumn sown wheat, but in 
this country it gives little trouble. Most of the pupae 
hatch out in spring and the eggs are laid on the growing 
wheat plants. The flies are gnat-like with bodies 
about } inch in length and with long legs and feelers. 
This pest is preyed on by a number of parasites, and 
large numbers of these come out of the so-called flax 
seeds. 
Remedial Measures. 
A stiff strawed wheat does not go down under an 
attack nearly so much as a weaker strawed variety. 
In one case where a crop was being attacked two kinds 
of wheat had been sown in the same field, the weaker 
strawed variety was badly laid but in the stiffer 
strawed form it was difficult to find an elbowed stem. 
An infected stubble should be deeply ploughed in 
the autumn. Complete inversion of the soil by means 
