46 



In 1879 the same observer in Hertfordshire mentions that the midge " was abundant 

 in all the earlier wheat fields, and did much damage, but little to the later crop ; wheat 

 ears did not make their appearance till about June 29th instead of June 12th, which may- 

 account for the date of the attack." Another observer, in the county of Norfolk, states 

 that " a little patch of wheat, a quarter of an acre, sown in the autumn, suffered much 

 from the wheat-midge j whilst another quarter of an acre close alongside, which, owing to 

 wet and frost, was not sown till spring, was not injured by it." A third observer notices 

 that "on June 27th the wheat-midge was especially abundaiit, whilst there were as yet no 

 wheat ears in which it could lay its eggs, and that no damage took place from the ravages 

 of the larvae." The foregoing observations completely justify the remedies that I sug- 

 gested for this pest in my account of the wheat-midge in the Report for 1871. 



6. The Wheat Aphis (Aphis Granaria) 



in 1879 attacked with extreme severity a field of 110 acres of wheat in Cheshire. (In 

 figure 27 we have a representation of an aphis 

 closely resembling the wheat aphis, highly magni- 

 fied.) The observer mentions the aphides as first 

 appearing in the early part of August and shortly 

 afterwards they were not as observable ; but about 

 September 8th they were again noticeable in as 

 great or greater numbers than before. The ears 

 they had previously attacked had become perfectly 

 white, as if blasted, and at the time of writing, 

 September 16th, every green head in the field ap- 

 peared full of them. It was estimated that what 

 ought to have given four to five good quarters of 

 wheat (about 30 to 40 bushels) would not yield 

 more than ten to twelve bushels per acre, and that of very inferior quality." During the 

 same year the aphis swarmed, in Yorkshire, both on wheat and barley, doing much injury. 



7. The Crane-Fly or Daddy Long-legs (Tipula oleracea, etc.) 



is oftentimes a very destructive insect in England ; several species are known in this coun- 

 try to commit much damage to grasses and crops. In 1878, near Dumfries, the larvse of 

 the crane-fly caused the worst insect attack of the season in the district. Hundreds of 

 acres of corn (wheat) are mentioned as being completely destroyed. In 1879, at those 

 spots in the same neighbourhood where it was so destructive in the previous year, it was 

 scarcely noticeable, whilst in others in the same locality it was present to a most injuri- 

 ous extent. "According to report the worms had been counted at the rate of 12, and 

 even up to 24, per square foot ; and this insect is considered as without doubt the worst 

 pest of the district." In Northumberland, Cheshire, Lancashire, and other localities, this 

 insect was reported to be very injurious. The following account records an instance of a 

 remarkabiy bad attack occurring in a fair-sized garden in the beginning of April, 1876. 

 " The lawn was completely bared, and the larvse were in such numbers that there was no 

 difficulty in collecting them in barrowfuls ; 57 larvae were counted at one daisy root. 

 Handpicking was useless, and a quantity of ducks were turned in, the soil being stirred 

 into shallow furrows from time to time to allow them to reach their prey. Eventually 

 the ravages ceased almost as suddenly as they had begun, but not until every piece of 

 grass in the garden was bared, as if, it had been cut with a turfing iron and left to die on 

 the spot. Grass seeds were sown in the late spring, and their growth encouraged 

 by a judicious use of nitrate of soda and dissolved bone manure. This soon restored the 

 turf, and the tipula has hardly been noticeable since." "Looking at the partiality of 

 tipulce larvae for damp ground, and that of the perfect crane-flies for rough neglected herb- 

 age, and their dislike to saline presence, it seems as if something might easily be done by 

 draining, removal of lurking places, and dressing with chemical manures, at least to dimin- 

 ish this trouble, and the fondness of birds for the grubs shows a direct mode of destruc- 



