affecting the Corn- Crops. 
135 
but each has two nipples beneath ; the last segment is terminated 
byaUttJe tubular appendage, which is capable of being protruded 
like a telescope, and assists the insect in its progress within the 
tube of the straw to which it is confined : fig. 1, fig. 2, magnified. 
The Pupa, as represented in Guerin's plate, appears to be 
cylindrical, and composed of nine segments, tapering towards the 
tail and thickened at the opposite extremity : it is enclosed in a 
transparent cylindrical cocoon, about five lines long, rounded at 
one end and stopped irregularly at the other with an operculum 
of excrement, &c. : fig. 3, fi^. 4, magnified. 
In the department of the Charente, on the western coast of 
France, this insect, to which the people have given the name of 
" aiguillonier," * has occasioned very great ravages amongst the 
standing corn, causing a considerable loss to the cultivators. 
Similar losses have been sustained in Africa by the colonists, whose 
corn was attacked in the same way ; and the mischief being abso- 
lutely of the same nature, M. Herpin thinks it was the operation 
of the same or an allied species. "The damage," he continues, 
"done by the Cephus to the wheat and rye, in tlie locality f where 
I have observed this insect, is serious enough, since the ears pro- 
duced by the attacked stalks are generally sterile, or contain only 
a very small number of grains, and I estimate the damage at 
about one-sixtieth of the whole crop; but that which it caused in 
Africa and the Charente appeared to be much more considerable." 
To destroy this troublesome pest, M. Dugaigneau proposes 
ploughing in March or the beginning of April. He thinks that the 
turning over and burying the stubble in the ground would destroy 
the larvae as well as the perfect insects, which would not be able 
to penetrate the soil in order to get out at the period of their hatch- 
ing : on the other hand, M. Herpin says the best means of de- 
struction appears to be to set fire to the stubble which remains upon 
the field after harvest, as the larvae are enclosed close to the roots: 
he also adds, that all well-informed agriculturists know that the 
burning of the straw to ashes is one of the most active and econo- 
mical stimulants of vegetation, especially in strong and argillaceous 
earths, which the fire dries and calcines; they are ameliorated and 
improved at all times by this simple operation, which is so easy 
and costs nothing to execute.! 
Providence has also provided a remedy in a parasitic Ichneu- 
mon (fig. 6), which is actively engaged in our corn-fields in the 
destruction of the larvae of the Cephus, with which it has been 
* M. Herpin suspected it was the larva of the Cephus, and his opinion has 
been confirmed by M. le Comte de Tristan, 
t Metz on the Moselle, in France. 
X Extract from the ' Meraoires de la Soc. Royale et Centrale d' Agricul- 
ture,' A.D. 1842, 
