INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 91 
up the stems at night in vast numbers to get at it. The Rev. G. T. Rudd, 
when residing at Kimpton near Andover, Hants, where this insect abounds, 
not only saw it, as did his brother, gnaw off the tip of the husk from the 
end of a grain of barley, and then gradually draw the milky grain out of 
its sheath, consuming it as it came forth, till the whole grain had disap- 
peared, and repeating the operation till seven or eight grains had been 
eaten, but was fully satisfied, on killing and dissecting it, that it had fed on 
the juicy immature grain.’ Along with the larve of this insect were 
found in the proportion of about one fourth, those of another beetle 
(Melolontha ruficornis), which seemed to contribute to the mischief? 
Other beetles, generally supposed to be carnivorous, as Amara communis 
trivialis, &c., are also stated by M. Zimmermann to feed on wheat.? 
The caterpillars of a moth (Agrotis segetum) occasionally devastate large 
tracts of wheat and rye by eating the roots, stem, and leaves, in Northern 
Germany, Prussia, Poland, and Russia*; but this species with us is 
chiefly injurious to turnips and garden vegetables. 
Mr. Markwick has given us the history of a fly that attacks wheat in a 
later period of its growth, which, if it be not indeed the same, appears to 
be nearly related to the Musca pumilionis of Bierkander® (Oscinis F.), 
accused by him of being extremely injurious to rye in the spring. Our 
insect was discovered on the lirst-sown wheats early in that season, mak- 
ing its lodgement in the very heart of the principal stem just above the 
root, which stem it invariably destroyed, giving the crop at first a most 
unpromising appearance, so that there seemed scarcely a hope of any 
produce, But it proved in this and other instances that year (1791) that 
the plant, instead of being injured, derived great benefit from this circum- 
stance; for, the main stem perishing, the root (which was not hurt) threw 
out fresh shoots on every side, so as to yield a more abundant crop than 
in other fields where the insect had not been busy. These flies, therefore, 
seem to belong to our insect benefactors ; and I should not have intro- 
duced them here, had it not been probable that in some instances later in 
the spring they may attack the lateral shoots of the wheat, and so be in- 
jurious. It is also not unlikely that the new progeny, which is disclosed 
in May, may oviposit in barley or some other spring corn, which would 
bring the next generation out in time for the wheat sown in the autumn. 
These flies are amongst the last, and, in some seasons, the most numerous, 
that take shelter in the windows of our apartments when the first frosts 
indicate the approach of winter, previous to their becoming torpid during 
that season. When this little animal was first observed in England, it 
created no small alarm amongst agriculturists, lest it should prove to be 
the Hessian fly, so notorious for its depredations in North America ; but—~ 
Mr. Marsham, by tracing out the species, proved the alarm to be un- 
1 Ent. Mag. ii. 182. 
? Germar’s Mag. der Znt. i. 1—10. Mr. Stephens, in his Illustrations of British 
Entomology (No. 1. p.4.) very judiciously asks, “ May not these herbivorous larvez have 
been the principal cause of the mischief to the wheat, while those of the Zubrus 
contributed rather to lessen their numbers than to destroy the corn?” But this 
query does not account for their being found, when in the perfect state, attacking 
theear. I have seen cognate beetles devouring the seeds of umbelliferous plants. 
3 Silbermann, Rev. Lnt. ii. 201. 
4 Killar on Ins. injurious to Gardeners, &c, 94—101. 
5 Act. Stockh. 17%, 8.n. 11, and 4,n.4. Marsham in Zinn. Trans, ii, 79. 
