380 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



of Philadelphia, entitled "Observations Concerning the Fly -Weevil 

 that Destroys Wheat." Before the middle of the present century, it 

 had become largely distributed over the " wheat belt " from the Atlan- 

 tic westward to the Mississippi river, but, fortunately, it seems to be 

 less destructive as it extends northward, not being able, apparently, to 

 endure the cold of severe waters. 



Rare in New York State. 



It has never been particularly injurious in New York — indeed, it 

 is rather a rare insect therein, having only come under my notice on 

 three or four occasions. Dr. Fitch, writing of the insect in 1861, states 

 that it had made its appearance in the museum of the State Agricultu- 

 ral Society ten years before, in wheat preserved in closely-corked bot- 

 tles, and had so multiplied in them that the contents were entirely 

 ruined. (Reports 6-9, p. 127.) 



Operations at the New York Experiment Station. 

 In the autumn of 1884, corn infested with it was received by me 

 from the State Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva. It had 

 been working within the corn in the museum for the preceding two 

 years. At my suggestion, careful examination was made for its 

 operations in the field. Answer was returned that no indications of 

 its presence there were found, and it was believed that it was entirely 

 confined to the dried corn contained in the museum. The following 

 observations upon it in the museum, were made by Mr. E. F. Ladd, at 

 that time the horticulturist of the station: 



Hundreds of moths emerged daily, and it became necessary to burn 

 much of the collection, while the remainder was packed in boxes and 

 treated to bisulphide of carbon An examination seems to show that 

 the larvae feed only upon the deposit of starchy matter in the kernel. 

 Larvae were not found in the varieties of sweet corn in which the 

 starch is distributed throughout the kernel, but they were found, fre- 

 quently, two and occasionally three, in a kernel of the flint corn, in which 

 the starch is deposited in a mass. In pairing, the moths remained 

 together twenty-five minutes. One moth laid thirty-six eggs, in two 

 patches of seventeen and nineteen, which hatched in seven day T s, from 

 2d to 9th of November. The eggs were at first milky white, showing 

 an orange tint at the end of twenty-four hours, and gradually becoming 

 deep orange at the end of thirty-six hours. They were laid on the 

 bottom of a dish, in threes, touching at the ends. 



It is probable that in each of the above instances the insect was 

 brought into New York in infested grain or corn, and it is doubtful if 

 it ever attacks growing crops, or newly grown, within our State. 



