affecting the Corn- Crops. 
493 
Gazette, June 1st, 1844, in which the writer says "There has 
been a remarkable failure of some fields of wheat around North 
Berwick, which have been ploughed down within the last few 
weeks. In early spring it promised as fine a crop as any in the 
country. Plants, however, here and there began to look sickly 
and to flag, which lay withered in the course of ten days. On ex- 
amination, every stem of the plants attacked was found to contain 
a small grub, Avhich enters about two inches beneath the surface 
of the soil, eats its way up the centre of the stem till it reaches the 
light, when it either dies or becomes transformed. The plants 
appear to reproduce fresh buds from the joint beneath the door of 
the grub, but the remaining vitality seems too weak to carry leaves 
to the air for respiration, far less to yield a crop." This was 
imrmediately followed by a letter addressed to the editor of the 
Preston Guardian by Mr. M.Saul, of Fort Green Cottage, Garstang, 
Lancashire, stating that he had discovered the grubs in wheat- 
fields on the estate of the Duke of Hamilton in that neighbour- 
hood ; and, with the plants forwarded to the Royal Agricultural 
Society, he stated that the wheat was sown in December, February, 
and March ; the first suffering the least from their attacks. The 
fields are a peat-earth, and were cropped with potatoes in 1843, 
On the 9th of June, and again on the 19th, Mr. Saul obligingly 
transmitted me some plants with the living maggots in them. The 
first two plants of wheat I received were four or five inches out of 
the ground, and withering (fig. 27) ; on pulling open the dilated 
base of one of the sheathing leaves, I found a small yellowish 
white, shining, fleshy maggot (fig. 28), surrounded by atoms of the 
stalk, which might have been digested, as they adhered together. 
It was perfectly concealed, with its head downward, and close' to 
the base of the plant; it had already eaten through the central 
stem, so that I coidd draw it out with ease. This maggot was a 
quarter of an inch long, the body was gradually attenuated to the 
head, which was pointed, with two black horny points ; the tail 
was terminated abruptly, with two brown tubercles and several 
smaller fleshy ones (fig. 28, and f. 29, the same magnified). 
Unfortunately, these larvae, as well as those forwarded a few days 
after, all died ; for, as they were much larger than those sent at 
the end of June, 1 am disposed to think they may be different to 
the foregoing or following species ; yet, on opening the stems in 
October, I found two dead larvae, and on a leaf I detected a small 
empty pupa-case, very similar to that of the species I am about to 
notice. 
13. OsCINIS VASTATOK. 
The wheat-plants transmitted to me on the 19th of June I placed 
in a garden-pot, when they died I enclosed them in a stopper- 
