89 



being given up altogether. I believe that farmers must bestir themselves and take steps to 

 •check the operations of this insect by using the remedies suggested by Entomologists or it 

 will assume the proportions of a widespread calamity. 



This, like many others of our most injurious insects, is not a native of Canada; but 

 was imported from Europe, and was probably a native of France. It was first noticed as 

 injurious to wheat crops in England a little over one hundred years ago. 



In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of England for 1772 Mr. 0. 

 Gullet gives a description of its injuries to wheat in England. It also feeds upon several 

 wild grasses and it seems probable that its introduction into Canada was in hay used for 

 packing — for it is difficult to understand how it could have come with wheat. 



The wheat midge is also known under other names — " The Red Maggot " or " The 

 Oiange Maggot," " The Fly," " The Weevil." The first two of these names explain them- 

 selves and are given on account of the colour of the larvae or maggots. The " Weevil " 

 is a very inappropriate name, because the word " Weevil" properly belongs to the snout- 

 beetles, different insects altogether. The Granary Weevils (Calanda oryzce and G. 

 granarla) are the only insect which attack wheat to which the name weevil should be 

 applied. These only attack stored grain and are never found in growing plants The 

 habit of giving the wrong names to insects gives much trouble and is frequently the 

 ■cause of the wrong remedies being applied. 



The life-history of the Wheat Midge as at present understood is briefly as follows : 

 During the warm evenings of June when the wheat is iust coming into blossom, clouds of 

 tiny midges (Fig. 46) with black eyes and yellow bodies may be seen flying over the wheat- 

 fields, or will be found in the room when the lamps are lighted and the windows left open. 

 These are the parents of the " Red Maggot of the Wheat." The body of the female is 

 prolonged into a long slender tube which can be extended and drawn in at pleasure. With 

 this tube, which is called an ovipositor, she pushes her minute eggs (Fig. 47) down between 



Fig. 47. 



Fig. 46. 



Fig. 48. 



the scales of the florets of the spike of wheat. In a little over a week these tiny eggs 

 hatch into transparent yellowish grubs which darken in colour as they grow older until 

 they acquire the reddish orange colour, from which they take their names, the Red or 

 Orange Maggot of the Wheat. As soon as the little maggots hatch they at once attack 

 the young forming grain. Gnawing through the skin they suck out the juice of the 

 " berry," close against which they lie, and prevent it from filling out proporly and giving 

 it the shrivelled appearance known amongst millers as " fly-struck." 



When full grown the maggots (Fig. 48) either work their way up between the scales of 

 chaff and drop to the ground, where they pass the winter, or they remain in the ears of 

 wheat and are harvested with them. Those that fall to the ground penetrate about an inch 

 beneath the surface where they spin a small cocoon of exceeding thinness, inside which 



7 (EN.) 



