RED maggot; wheat midge. 
29 
of Cecidomyia larvas or “red maggots,” as they are called, and is one 
of the best means of distinguishing the different species. In the true 
Wheat Midge maggot this minute process is as figured (fig. 2), slightly 
2, Anchor process of Wheat Midge maggot; 1 and 3, of Foxtail Grass maggot.* 
convex, with a blunt notch scooped out at the end, which lies free and 
pointing forward. 
The “ anchor process ” of the larger or Barley Midge maggot (not 
figured) was distinctly different in shape, being almost flat across the 
free end, or very slightly saucer-shaped. What the use of this process 
may be has not, as far as I am aware, been brought forward, but 
scarcely seems to admit of a doubt. From the different forms which 
occur in different species of maggots of the genus living respectively 
on hard or soft matter, as, for instance, the blunt-ended processes of 
the Wheat maggot, and the strong almost hooked cruciform process of 
the Bed Maggot of the Willow (also from careful examination of the 
condition of the cell of the Willow maggot immediately on opening it), 
I conjecture that the instrument is used as a kind of scraper to work 
off minute fragments for food of the maggot, or sometimes to form 
the hollow cell in which it lies. The mouth-parts appear too delicate 
for this work ; and, in the case of the Willow maggot, which forms a 
cell large enough to hold itself beneath the bark or in the wood of the 
Willow, there appears no possible way in which this could be cleared 
out but by the help of its “ anchor process.” 
The Barley Midge maggots live in parties between the stem and 
sheathing leaves of various kinds of Corn, causing thereby a deformed 
growth, or sometimes complete destruction. When full-fed the maggots 
go down into the earth to complete their changes. The Gnat Midges 
appear about May or June of the following year, and are much like the 
Wheat Midge figured (p. 27) in shape, but of a darkish or rusty-red 
colour, with a pair of silvery wings. As the maggots lie in the ground 
during winter, any operations which will throw them on the surface, 
or skimming, and then collecting and burning the Corn-roots in which 
they lie, will be of service. 
The great amount of damage to Wheat caused by Midge-maggots, 
and notes of its life-history, &c., have been given in previous Beports. 
* The illustrations of Foxtail Grass maggot refer to notes which they accom¬ 
panied in Keport for 1884. 
