CORN APHIS. 
17 
On August 8th Mr. David Rowland, of the Balance Farm., Titley, 
remarked:—“I beg to call your attention to the enclosed ears of 
Wheat brought to me by a neighbouring farmer. The ears were 
nearly all deficient of three or four corns, at the base,- and many of 
those higher up (especially the central corn) were empty. We found 
an insect, sometimes green and sometimes nearly black, in an inverted 
position, attached to the corn where it joins the stalk. 
“ It appeared as if the insect had sucked the juices out of the corn, 
and that the grain then withered up, leaving nothing but chaff. The 
effect will seriously affect the yield per acre.” 
In this case, and in one or possibly two others, there was some 
amount of presence of Corn Thrips and of Red Maggot along with that 
of the Plant Lice. 
In the following remarks, contributed by Mr. T. H. Hart, late of 
Park Farm, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent, some notes are given of the 
gradual spread of the attack from the leafage to the forming ear, and 
it will be observed that in this case the large and small Aphides at the 
early stage of the attack were green, presumably therefore of the true 
Grain Aphis, Siphonophora granaria. Mr. Hart wrote as follows :— 
“ Dolphin .—Far too plentiful for the good of the crops, yet difficult 
to define what damage was done. Long before the ears were visible 
large specimens of Aphis surrounded by a brood of little ones were to 
be found on the upper surface of the ribbon of almost every plant, 
especially of Oats. These were green. Later on small ‘ lice ’ of a 
colour tending towards chocolate were scattered about the under side of 
the ribbon, and, still later, when the ears and panicles were well 
expanded, larger green Aphides clustered between the sets of Wheat or 
Barley and at the base of the grain of Oats.” 
Badly-infested Wheat-ears were also forwarded to me on the 31st 
of July from Holme, Biggleswade, by Mr. C. S. Lindall, with the 
observation that every ear in one part of the field from which the 
sample was taken was infested, and that on this part the crop seemed 
likely to be entirely destroyed. Nothing wrong was detected on the 
rest of the Wheat, of which about 100 acres were grown. It was 
mrtlier remarked that in an experience of many years the observer 
had not previously noticed this kind of attack. 
The reason of this unusual amount of Aphis-presence is presumably 
that the drought was favourable to the increase of the insects, both by 
suiting them and by keeping the crop in a condition in which the 
sap was suitable for their quick development and consequent rapid 
increase, 
With regard to methods of remedy, it does not appear possible to 
do anything to get rid of the plant-lice when lodged in the corn itself, 
unless some help might be got from small insectivorous birds, as Tits, 
c 
