534 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
Myriads of small pale maggots crawling from the mow of wheat soon after it 
is placed in the barn; the kernels of grain shrivellod and dwarfish. 
The WHEAT MOW ply, Jgromyza Tritici, new species (Plate 2, fig. ]). 
Several years ago a fanner in my neighborhood, soon after 
gathering his wheat into the barn, found countless myriads of 
small worms were crawling out of it, literally covering the mow 
of grain and wandering away from it to every part of the barn. 
These worms it is evident had just now completed their growth 
and were crawling about in search of the moist earth, wherein 
to bury themselves, to repose during their pupa state. It would 
seem that some cause had made them later than usual in reach¬ 
ing maturity; and had the wheat remained in the field a few 
days longer, they would have escaped from it there, so generally 
that no notice of them would have been taken, and the fact 
would never have been known that such an army of insects had 
had their subsistence upon this crop. 
Alarmed with the numbers of these worms, and fearing they 
would perhaps wholly destroy the mow of grain, the proprietor 
had the whole of it threshed immediately. I happened to visit 
the barn as the threshed grain was being winnowed, when the 
above facts were communicated to me. The heap of uncleaned 
grain was literally alive with these worms and the cracks in the 
floor were filled with them. The kernels of wheat appeared to 
be shrunk in the same manner as when they have been infested 
with the wheat midge. I put a number of these worms into a 
small box, with some of the chaff and grain. Other engage¬ 
ments diverted my attention from this subject and it was wholly 
forgotten until many months afterwards, when, happening to open 
the box, I found in it quite a number of small flies, which had 
completed their transformations and perished in their confine¬ 
ment. It therefore appears that it is by no means essential to 
these worms to bury themselves in the moist earth, though that 
is doubtless their natural habit. But if they can find any cre¬ 
vice in the dry barn where they can stow themselves and lie un¬ 
disturbed, it is all they require in order to complete their trans¬ 
formations. 
The worms, according to my recollection, were much like the 
little yellow maggots of the wheat midge, but were of a dull 
