272 [Senate 
of the yard a bed equally as comfortable and secure as that in which 
their brethren in the field are at this time reposing. 
Whence does this singular diversity in the habits of these larvae 
arise ? All the worms are undoubtedly fully matured before the 
grain becomes ripe and dry and hard. Why then do one part of 
them leave the wheat heads and enter the ground ere the harvest — 
and another portion of them remain within the ears to be carried into 
the barn with the grain when it is housed ? Two well attested ob¬ 
servations, I think, shed important light upon this interesting point. 
And if the inference which I deduce from them be correct, we have 
arrived at another very curious trait in the economy of this insect. 
Dr. Harris informs us, that “ after a shower of rain, they [the larvaj] 
have been seen in such countless numbers on the beards of the wheat , as 
to give a yellow color to the whole field ; ” and he refers to the New- 
England Farmer, vol. xii. p. 60, in confirmation of this statement, a 
volume which I have not at hand. For an analogous but still more 
instructive fact, I am indebted to Gen. M’Naughton, a practical far¬ 
mer of this town, the accuracy of whose statements no one acquainted 
with him will doubt. In 1832, his wheat, in which the fly had made 
sad havoc, was cradled and lying in the swath, when a moderate rain 
came on, followed by a damp cloudy afternoon. At this time, with 
his hired help, he repaired to the harvest-field to bind up the grain. 
They here found not only the heads, but also the straw in its entire 
length sprinkled over with these worms. On my observing to him, that 
I could scarcely believe it possible for a footless worm to crawl along 
the straw when it was lying horizontally, he stated that he was par¬ 
ticularly positive with regard to that fact ; for he distinctly recollect¬ 
ed that it was impossible for him to draw the band around a bundle 
and tie it [in which process the heads of the grain are not touched,] 
without having at least a half dozen of these worms adhering to his 
hands. 
From these facts, I infer that the worm does not crawl out of the 
chaff ^tnd “ drop ” itself to the ground, as has been stated by some 
writers ; but that having attained its growth, it lies dormant within 
the chaff, awaiting a favorable state of the weather in which to make 
its descent, to wit, a rain which is not immediately followed by a 
clear sky and warm sun that would soon dry the straw. Hence it is 
doubtless almost invariably by night that this journey of the worm 
