the fact that, as far as known at present, serious damage by tW 
insect in fall has been confined to wheat sown eaily m the sea 
^Furthermore, this species passes the midsummer period one stage ii| 
advance of the Hessian fly, the latter summering as larva or pupa am 
the bulb worm as an adult; and as the “fly” w known to improv 
the earliest opportunity for oviposition afforded it, theie is a stil 
stronger probability that the Meromyza will be even more incline, 
to a prompt deposition of its eggs than the former species. ( Fror 
these eggs the worms hatch in September and October, doing i g nail 
much damage to wheat in fall, but continuing the work i: 
spring. By the middle of April, they commence to pupate, but d 
not all complete this transformation before the middle of May. Th 
pupal state lasts about a fortnight, the flies emerging from May 
to June 1, or thereabouts. . , A 
Late in May and early in June the eggs for the next brood ai 
laid under and about the sheaths of the upper leaves ot the no 
heading wheat and rye; and these hatching, the larvatof the secon 
brood make their way inward to the tender base of the young ped 
cel of the head, iust above the upper joint. Here they may be four 
feeding on the tissues of the stem from the middle of June to tt 
first of August, by which latter date all have pupated and mo 
have transformed to winged flies. These have been seen to emer; 
from the pupa at intervals from July 4 to August 5, and, m a 
probability, then remain in waiting for an opportunity to lay the 
eggs- on the earliest wheat to appeal. 
INJURIES TO WHEAT. 
The wheat fields first visited afforded an excellent example of t] 
amount and method of the injury to wheat done by the winter bro. 
of the larva*. At a little distance, the whole surface of this he 
looked brown and dead, as if killed by freezing; but on close mspe 
tion a stalk could be seen here and there which still remained gree 
A careful search revealed the larva m about one stalk m eve 
fifteen or twenty, most of those which were thoroughly dead 
longer containing the insect. Even these, however, if not too mu 
withered, invariably gave traces of previous injury of the kind d 
tinctly visible in the fresher stems. 
Where the larva was still at work, it was found imbedded 1 
tween the bases of the inner leaves, and sometimes quite wit 
the stalk, where it had gnawed and torn away the issues ot t 
plant. There was no evidence that the substance ot the plant v 
actually devoured; but on the contrary, from the form of the moi 
*An iniurv precisely similar to that done to wheat by the wheat-bulb worm, is 
tremely common in blue grass and timothy throughout the t jfJ^e rarely b 
due to this species; but the escape of the insect there is so prompt that I have rare y d f 
able to find it in any stage after the injury becomes evidemt through the whitening L 
Land nf Indeed a single pupa found beneath the sheath of a stem of timothy I 
had beenfaSured inthisw“y. is the only direct evidence I have of the character of 
insect responsible for this mischief. This pupa was certainly dipterous, and ver> siml 
in appearance to that of Meromyza, but differed in the proportions of the se ^P e P n L i 
especially in the size and distinctness of the terminal ones. I am consequently d I 
if it was that of Meromyza, but think it more likely that it belonged to a species of ( h 
ops hklwise very ahSdant earlier in the season. On the other hand the great abua^ 
ibo {\\r aP Mpromv/a in May in regions where very little winter wheat ana not in 
?,l1 %'?a°Ld. 6 (S alout NoSalf hfkes it almost certain that the larvte live in s'omett 
else than these grains. 
