66 
CORN. 
or Eye. The footless yellow maggot, which soon hatches, feeds in the 
kind of gall-growtli which it causes by its presence (see figure), and 
remains in the ripened straw, where it turns to the pupa-state, from 
which the fly comes out during June of the following year. It appears, 
therefore, that the attack may be easily carried on to our farms (if in 
the straw T ) by the short morsels sold for bedding. 
The “Wheat-stem maggot ” of the small two-winged fly, the 
Meromyza Americana , is another kind of serious corn-stem attack, for 
which I am on the watch, because in 1888 I had a specimen sent me 
out of Kent, resembling this very destructive maggot both in size, 
shape, and its peculiar green colour. In descriptions of this attack 
the ear is stated to be destitute of grain, and the stem shrunk for about 
three or four inches above the joint. The maggots are described as 
about a quarter of an inch long, tapering to the head, blunt at the other 
end, and of a watery green colour, one in each stem, feeding a little 
above the joint, so as to cause the stem to be utterly shrivelled and 
worthless for conveying the sap, and the chrysalis to be found at the 
same spot on removing the sheathing-leaf. 
The minute two-winged fly is only about a quarter of an inch across 
in spread of the wings, with a black spot on the top of the head; the 
body between the wings, and likewise the abdomen, marked with three 
black stripes running lengthwise, and the eyes are green. 
There are other field and corn-attacks which might apparently be 
transmitted in refuse, but I mention the above as more especially 
likely, as far as I can judge, to be found present, and, if observed, I 
would at once give my best attention to any communication on the 
subject. 
The attack of the caterpillars of a Flour Moth can perhaps scarcely 
be included amongst those of crop insects ; but as in this case the very 
injurious moth (scientifically the Ephestia Kuhniella of Zeller) has but 
recently established itself in this country, and its first observation on 
the Continent of Europe took place no further ago than 1877, it may 
be of service to give a few notes of some of the successive trustworthy 
reports of its appearance, as well as a figure from life, and some 
observations of its history and habits. 
The first European observation of this Flour Moth was made in the 
summer of 1877, when, as recorded by Prof. P. C. Zeller, of Grunhof,* 
specimens were placed in his hands by Dr. Kuhn (Director of the 
Agricultural Institute of the University of Halle, Germany) of moths 
which had been very troublesome in the bolting-cloths during the 
grinding of a quantity of American flour, with the request that Prof. 
Zeller would ascertain their names. These moths proved to be of a 
previously undescribed species of Ephestia, which was named (after its 
* Ent. Zeit. Stettin, 1879. 
