322 
THE CULTIVATOR 
Oct, 
them. But lest I may be the means of introducing 
among you the most destructive pest, you will not con¬ 
sider me as recommending these insect acquaintances to 
your favor or mercy; hut on the contrary, invoking for 
them the most careful and relentless extermination at 
your hands. 
For fear you may not he able to find the maggot and 
its cell, you will perceive I have, in one or two instan¬ 
ces, laid bare the latter, and, doubtless, the carcase of 
the maggot may be seen in it by the time these plants 
reach you. Most respectfully. Alex. Rives. Carlton , 
Albemarle county, Va. 
On receiving the above communication from Mr. Rives, 
we sent specimens of the wheat-plant which he forward¬ 
ed us, to. Dr. Fitch, with a request that he would ex¬ 
amine them, and furnish such remarks for publication as 
he might deem proper. He has kindly sent us the fol¬ 
lowing very able paper, which comprises much valuable 
information in regard to insects which attack wheat, as 
well as to the “joint-worm” in particular. Eds. 
Editors Cultivator — I communicate herewith, my 
notes and observations, on examining the wheat-plant 
which you received from Alex. Rives, Esq., of Albe¬ 
marle county, Ya., containing the insect designated the 
“joint-worm.” 
Bugs (Hemiptera) upon growing wheat. —I first ob¬ 
serve, lying upon the infested stalk, the insect to which 
you allude in your letter, as perhaps having been hatched 
from the joint-worm. It is a small, oval insect with a 
very flattened body, six-hundredths of an inch long and 
scarcely half as wide, of a lively blood red color, with a 
band across its middle above, of a yellowish white color, 
occupying the two first or basal segments of the abdo¬ 
men, behind which, in the middle of the back, are two 
black spots, one behind the other. Its six legs and its 
beak, or sucker, are of a honey-yellow color, and its 
horns or antennae have the two basal joints light yellow, 
and the two terminal ones (which are enlarged, forming 
an oval, pointed knob) of a dark brown color. No ves¬ 
tiges of wings or wing-cases are discernible. This insect 
is plainly the young larvae of some species of bug, of the 
order Hemiptera, and probably of the genus Capsus or 
Phytocoris. It is too immature for me to say anything 
more definite respecting it. But in this connection I 
may remark, that I have several times observed the eggs 
of insects of this family arranged in straight rows upon 
the leaves, not only of wheat, but of other grains and 
grasses, and have watched the larvae coming from these 
eggs and feeding in their vicinity. These larvae never 
have the form of worms, but resemble the perfect in¬ 
sects, except that their wings and wing-cases are not yet 
developed. They subsist upon the juices of vegetables, 
which they extract by means of a sucker, in much the 
same way that the musketoe obtains the blood of man 
and other animals. "When first hatched, they draw their 
nourishment from the leaf that they are then upon; but 
as they acquire more size and strength, they wander 
away and live equally well upon other vegetables. Some 
of our species (the common squash or pumpkin-vine 
bug, for instance) seem to prefer plants of one kind, 
whilst others show no such preferences, but subsist 
equally well upon a variety of plants. I have frequent¬ 
ly noticed, however, that plants that are weakened and 
diseased and of puny growth, are much more infested 
by these vegetable leeches , as they may appropriately be 
called, than those that are healthy and vigorous. The 
presence of this red bug, therefore, upon the wheat 
stalk from Yirginia, is only accidental, or as a conse¬ 
quence and not a cause of disease. It cannot have been 
bred from any worm infesting the wheat-plants, as in 
none of the stages of their existence do insects of this 
kind have the form of maggots or worms. 
The “ joint-worm.” —The wheat stalk, immediately 
above the lower joint, in the specimen before me, is ob¬ 
viously diseased for a distance exceeding a half inch. It 
is swollen to a size a third larger than it is above or be¬ 
low ; it is changed to a harder and more wood-like tex¬ 
ture ; the veins are distorted and crowded out of their 
natural straight and parallel direction; and several long 
spots of a paler color and slightly elevated, like blisters, 
appear. On carefully cutting into these blistered-like 
elevations, a hollow cavity is found, which is nearly a 
quarter of an inch long, and tapering to a point at each 
end. In each of these cavities lies a footless worm or 
maggot, which is about ten-hundredths of an inch long 
by four-hundredths broad; of an oval form, rather more 
tapering posteriorly than towards its head; and divided 
by slight constrictions into thirteen segments. The 
worm is soft, shining, of a uniform milk-white color, 
and on its anterior end is a small Y shaped brown line, 
marking the situation of its mouth. So exactly does 
this worm in its form and appearance resemble the larvae 
of the Hessian-fly and the other species of Cecidomyia 
which have fallen under my examination, that I enter¬ 
tain no doubt that it pertains to the same genus of in¬ 
sects. And when we see it infesting the same part of 
the wheat-stalk with the Hessian-fly, and producing much 
the same swollen appearance of the stalk that the Hessian- 
fly causes, no person but one well acquainted with the 
habits of that insect would suspect that this was any¬ 
thing different. It is therefore important that the points 
in which these two insects vary from each other, should 
be carefully noted, that they may not be confounded with 
and mistaken for each other. 
Differences between the joint-worm and the Hessian- 
fly. —As far as I am able to ascertain from the single 
wheat-stalk which chiefly shows disease in the plant be¬ 
fore me, this worm differs in its situation and habits from 
that of the Hessian-fly, in the following particulars. 
1st. The Hessian-fly worm occupies a natural cleft or 
partition in the wheat plant, to wit, between the sheath 
which is formed by the base of the leaf, and the main or 
central stalk or culm. Therefore, on drawing the leaf 
aside so as to part this sheath and separate it from the 
stalk, when it is stripped off downwards almost to its 
base, the Hessian-fly worm is exposed to view. This 
may be done without any cutting or tearing of the plant. 
The joint-worm , on the other hand, lives in the parenchy¬ 
ma or substance of the sheath, near its base. On separa¬ 
ting the sheath from the culm and drawing it aside, the 
worm is not exposed to view: it lies in the texture that 
is thus separated, and can only be seen by cutting into 
the elevated or blistered spot already spoken of, which 
spots are equally manifest on the inner as they are upon 
the outer surface of sheath. 
2d. The Hessian-fly worm is closely enveloped, its sur- 
