■104.
ENEMIES INJURIOUS' TO THE FARMER
hole, which it immediately made for, it came in contact witha second atom, however small, which it was almost certain todo, it had not the power of extricating itself as in the formerinstance, but, wreathing about in the greatest agony, it soonexpired *.
2. Insects injurious to the ears of grain.
This important subject has been of late materially illustra-ted, by some intelligent and public-spirited members of theLinnean Society of London .
In the transactions of that useful institution, several pa-pers are printed on the subject, from which it would appear,that the crops of wheat are injured by various maggots or in-sects, but that the principal are, the wheat-insect, or ear-wormas Dr Coventry calls it, ( Tijmla triticij, and the Thrips phy-sapus. The former produce small yellow larvae or maggots,which become short, thick, black flies. These larvae, it is con-jectured, may feed on the farina or male dust of the stamina,and may possibly prevent the proper fertilization of the pis-til, in such a manner, as to occasion the future grain to beshrivelled and imperfect. Others maintain, that the fly, in ge-neral, does not make its appearance until the spring, so as tobe in readiness to deposit its eggs in the wheat, when it hasmade so much progress in growth, that the larva* may behatched about the time of its going into blossom. Mr Kir-by observed, on the 3d of June 1778, an innumerable host ofthe tipula, flying about in all directions in the wheat fields.They are seldom to be seen before seven o’clock in the even-ing ; at eight o’clock the field appeared to swarm with them,at which hour they are busily employed in laying their eggsin the florets of the wheat: about nine o’clock they generallydisappeared. About the twenty-ninth of June, the parenttipula were no more to be seen. Some naturalists are of opi-nion, that the tipula tritici or wheat insect, and the tipula