350 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE. 



wheat is not exposed to subsequent layings, except on the grains 

 at the surface of the bulk. Even if the eggs had previously been at- 

 tached to and had remained with the grains instead of the chaff, as I 

 infer to be the case, and then hatched in the interior of the bulk, the 

 weevils could not escape from such close confinement, but would die 

 without increase. 



"Seed wheat is usually kept spread out at least 10 inches thick, in 

 order to avoid any possible heating from remaining moisture, and by 

 some farmers is frequently stirred, both of which conditions offer a 

 greater opportunity for the depredations of these insects. Notwith- 

 standing this, it is rare that they become numerous. 



'•4. The bulking of early-threshed wheat without separating the 

 chaff is also said to be sufficient protection from the weevil. Of this 

 mode I have no experience. Its efficacy must depend, not on the re- 

 moval of the eggs, but on the stifling 61 the maggots and the inability 

 of either the maggots or the moths to move in so close a mass." 



DESCRIPTIVE. 



Inasmuch as no good description of the egg has yet been published, 

 we append here a short description of eggs laid by moths in confine- 

 ment, February, 1882. Dr. Fitch's descriptions of the other stages are 

 very full and accurate: 



Gelechia cereaxella — Egg: Shape a flattened oval, broadest at the middle, 

 rounded at the apex, flattened somewhat at base; leugtb 0.6 mm , greatest breadth 

 0.*2 ,um . Surface wrinkled, with eight or nine delicate longitudinal carinas, which 

 are almost entirely obliterated in the middle, and with numerous still more delicate 

 transverse ridges. Color pale red, with prismatic reflections. 



THE COTTONY MAPLE SCALE. 

 (Pulvinaria innumerabilis, Rathvon.) 

 Order Hemiptera; Family Cocciile. 

 [Plate X; Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.] 



DISTRIBUTION. 



This senle insect stands prominent among the species which have 

 been especially abundant during the past summer. Circumstances ap- 

 pear to have been particularly favorable to its development, and, although 

 it does not spread rapidly, its general appearance this season has caused 

 considerable alarm in many States. It was sent to us during the spring 

 and summer by correspondents in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri. For the past 

 thirty years it has attracted considerable attention as damaging shade 

 trees, particularly the maples, in different parts of the country, occur- 

 ring in extraordinary abundance from time to time, and then almost 

 lost sight of for several years. It is more particularly a Northern in- 

 sect, and although it is often numerous in Virginia and Missouri, we 

 have never received it from, nor heard of its occurrence in the extreme 

 Southern States. 



HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 



The species was originally described by Mr. S. S. Rathvon in the 

 Pennsylvania Farm Journal (Vol. IV, pp. 256-258, August, 1854} as 



