8 THE FRIT-FLY. 
shading to yellowish-brown toward the smaller end. If 
closely inspected it shows faint traces of sutures or segments. 
The illustration (fig. 2) shows the different stages of the 
insect far better than words can describe them. These seed- 
like objects contain at this time (Oct.) whitish larve, or 
worms; and no pupe have been detected inside of them up to 
this date. The larva, or worm, is also illustrated in fig. 2, 
hb; it is of a greenish-white color when alive and just removed 
from the culm. 
These puparia are very similar to those of the Hessian-fly 
in its ‘‘flax-seed stage’? and their resemblance has given 
color to the belief that this injurious insect had found a 
home with us, which unfortunately proved true, as will be 
shown later. Judging from the fact that only pupz can be 
feund at this time it would appear asif this insect hibernates 
in that stage. This is really the only one in which it could 
well pass our northern winters, being inthat stage well pro- 
tected by its old and thickened skin and by the stem of the 
plant. The puparia are inserted in the material of the upper 
part of the node, inaccessible to any moisture from the out- 
side, as the stem above does not break off entirely but sim- 
ply bends in a more or less acute angle a short distance over 
them, thus preventing the entrance of water. Yet the culm 
is sufficiently fractured to permit a free exit of the future fly 
in spring. 
As shown in the following question from Bulletin No. 
23, the insect is not an entire stranger in Minnesota: ‘It . 
is not always easy or even possible to explain why 
any one insect should suddenly appear in large numbers 
over an extended area. It is only by a very careful and 
long continued investigation that we may sometimes arrive 
ata true explanation. Here it is readily found in the fact 
that owing to the wet autumn of 1891, and the equally wet 
spring of 1892, not much more than one-half of the usual 
acreage of wheat was plowed, andin many places the shocks 
of grain had to be left upon the fields. Many inquiries plain- 
ly indicated that in 1891 small patches of wheat had been 
noticed which showed bleached heads long before harvest, 
and no doubt these white culms harbored the insect el 
