STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
787 
MIDGE. LARVA. THE YOUNG LARVA. 
represented in our figure* looking as if they were filled with little 
hubbies of air of a reddish tint, with a small portion of each 
end clear and colorless. 
The Larva. 
In their natural situation in the wheat ears, it is scarcely prac¬ 
ticable to observe the eggs so closely as to ascertain precisely 
the time which elapses after they are laid, till they hatch. We 
only know in relation to this point, that when the midge first 
appears and its eggs begin to become common in the wheat ears, 
we begin to find the young larvae there a week later. We there¬ 
fore conclude this to be about the length of time the insect con¬ 
tinues in the egg state. 
When they first come from the egg, the larvae are exceedingly 
small, less than the hundredth of an inch in length. I see in 
different places in my manuscripts, I have on measuring them set 
down their length as being 0.0075. They are very soft, feebly 
hyaline and of a dull watery white color, without any tinge of 
yellow. They in fact appear closely like the eggs from which 
they come, being of much the same shape, size and color ; but 
fine transverse lines are perceptible upon their bodies dividing 
them into joints or segments, whereby we are able with certainty 
to distinguish a larva from an egg. 
As the eggs from which they hatch are scattered about in dif¬ 
ferent crevices of the chaffs around as well as within the florets, 
it is evident the infantile worm must crawl from these several 
situations to the germ or young kernel from which it is to suck 
its nourishment. Even where the eggs are inserted within the 
floret, it is always near the upper ends of the chaffs and at a 
small distance above the germ that they are dropped, for the 
length of the ovipositor does not enable the fly to reach so far 
into the floret as to place them upon the germ. Hence all the 
worms when they hatch must make at least a short journey from 
the egg to reach their feeding place. 
There is thus au evident correspondence in the habits of the 
newly born larva of the wheat midge and that of the Hessian 
fly. The Hessian fly larva hatching on the surface of the leaf 
travels down it to its base, where it enters the crevice between 
the central stalk and the sheath surrounding it, down which 
crevice it crowds itself till it reaches its base. The midge ltjrva 
