ilk 
plants, the roots of which had been attacked, died off; and the 
spot to which the insects had fastened themselves on the still soft 
straw within the sheath of the leaf, was found to be brown, with- 
ered, and tough, yet without any apparent wound. The straw 
which had become lodged, produced small ears, with few and im- 
perfect grains, which ripened with difficulty, and the straw was 
twisted, and of a very inferior quality.” 
Nearly a hundred miles south-west of Saxe-Altenburgh, a simi- 
lar account is simultaneously given by Baron Von Meninger, ag- 
ricultural director of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. According to 
his report, “In the fields of Weikendorf, and other neighboring 
localities, caterpillars were found which had devastated whole 
fields. These caterpillars had their first abode near the ground, 
in the first joint of the straw, where they were found in whole 
families, in a sort of nest. The largest were about the length of 
two lines. Their color was pale green, with a small black dot 
above. .... The straw became dry at the first joint, and fell 
over or leaned on its neighbor. The upper part of the straw re- 
ceived its nourishngent from the atmosphere alone, and the ears 
formed: but they continued in a sickly condition, and could only 
produce small, shrivelled grains. The life of the caterpillars 
(their duration as naked worms?) appeared to be from about 
twenty-four to thirty days. As the straw ripened, the insects 
changed their color into a brownish hue, shriveled up, and finally 
disappeared.” 
M. Kéllar, who seems to have known nothing of the American 
history of this insect beyond what he gathered from Mr. Say’s 
brief account, obtained some of the diseased straw from Germany, 
in which, he says, “many of the brown pupe were found. I 
opened the pupz-case, and was able to determine with great pro- 
bability, partly from the form of the pupz, and partly from the 
unchanged caterpillar in the pupa-case, that it must be a small 
fly. Ionly ascertained this from the minute description and draw- 
ing of the insect from Mr. Thomas Say, in a North American 
journal, in which a stem of wheat, with the pupa within it, is 
exactly represented as I have seen our wheat. 
