796 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
\ MIDGE. LARVA. ITS DESCENT TO THE BARTH. 
the ripe grain in the greatest abundance. Very few will leave 
their retreats when the wheat ears are agitated by the wind. 
And it is only a portion of the larvae contained in the ears that 
come forth at one time, a large reserve corps always remaining 
to descend at subsequent periods. A wheat field therefore which 
is so injured that it is not harvested will have hosts of these 
larvae descending from the ears with every rain which occurs 
during the autumn. The following experiment will more plainly 
illustrate this fact: 
Twenty wheat heads were gathered soon after the middle of 
July and tied in two bundles of ten in each, and were placed in 
separate jars for the purpose of exposing them to each rain that 
occurred, so long as any larvas continued to descend from them. 
Jar No. 1 was placed out for the first time on the tenth of August, 
jar No. 2 two months later, on the eighth of October. No. 1 was 
not exposed on this last date, my aim being to ascertain if as 
many larvae would not then come at once from No. 2 as had pre¬ 
viously come at different times from No. 1. The number of larvae 
found in each jar after each rain was as follows : 
No. 1 No. 2 
Aug. 10 
23 
Sept. 12 
Oct. 8 
13 
20 
23 
34 
4 
46 
.. 88 
27 45 
31 15 
74 32 
216 180 
It merits to be stated that the individuals which descended on 
the last dates were mostly small sized and dwarfs ; thus showing 
that those larvae which are not full grown when the wheat ripens 
are prone to linger in tho ears till the very last, as though they 
were loolcing for the kernels to become' soft again whereby they 
might feed further upon them, and only abandoning this hope 
when the rains become so cold as to apprise them they must 
make no longer delay in secreting themselves in the earth and 
wrapping their blanket around them to protect them from the 
vicissitudes of the coming winter. 
Many persons entertain the opinion that it is only the larval 
