Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-03-27
FARMERS ENEMIES.
A Review of the Illinois Entomo oIegi-
cal Campaign of SS3.

to the State Board of Agriculture of
his observations during 1883 of the
insects which have damaged the crops
of Illinois farmers. Professor Forbes
says: Now that one years entomolo-
glcal campaign is completed, a brief
review of some of its most important
features and results will doubtless be
of interest. Early attention was given
to the insects attacking corn in the
ground, before the spreut has appear
ed above the surface. A surprising
number were found to infest it at this
period, the results of their injuries
being usually attributed by farmers
to the weather, defective seed, etc.
Among these the seed-corn maggot
(AnthOn1yia zeg) was frequently
noted, and was received from many
parts Of the state. A small, black
headed maggot, the larva of a very
abundant, gnat-like fly (SeiGra), was
also excessively common in ground
which had been previously in grass,
and attacked the seed-corn if it did
not germinate promptly and vigorous
ly, but apparently did not injure per-
fectly sound and healthy grains. A
minute yellow ant (SOIe1lOpsis fugGT)
was seen actually gnawlng and lick
ing away the substance of the sound
kernels in the ground, both before and
after they had sprouted. The corn
plant-louse (Aphis nlaidi9 was an
early and destructive enemy of the
crop, often throttling the young shoot
before it had broken ground. 1t was
chiefly confined to fields which had
been just previously in corn or grass.
''The chinch-bug was found in
spring depositing the eggs for its first
brood of young about the roots of
the corn, habit not hitherto report
ed.
with the increasing attention to
the culture of sorghum, its insect
enemies are coming rapidly to the
front. Four species of plant-lice, two
of them new, made vigorous attack
upon this crop in the vicinity of
Champaign, and two of them were
likewise abundant in broom-corn.
'"The corn roOt-wOrm (DiGbrdtic0
IonTco1nis) was occasionally met
with in sorghum, but does not seem
likely to do any great mischief to that
plant. It could not be found in
broom corn In fields of maize, how
ever, it was again very destructive,
where corn had been raised on the
same ground a year or two before.
The Hessian-fy did greatj damage
throughout tho wintcr wheat region
of the state, many. fields not being
worth harvesting in consequence of
it's ravages. Several facts were col
lected tending to show that it is three
brooded in the Southern part of the
state. Nearly or quiet all the last
brood passed the summer as ''fax
seeds" in the stubbles, where they
might easily have been destroyed by
general and concerted action. For
tunately, the summer weather was
unfavorable to their development; !;
and the drouth conspired with their
parasites to greatly diminish their
numbers. In the regions under our
observation, not one in a thousand
emerged from the midsumer pupa-
cases, and numbers of the Larvae were
found completely dried up.
'The wheat straw-worm (LsoSSnaU
tritic0, a minute, slender, yellow
grub, which burrows inside the grow
ing stem, dwarfing or blighting the
forming head, was abundant through
out the winter wheat region of south
ern Illinois, causing, in some places,
a loss scarcely exceeded by that due
to the Hessian fly. Our breeding ex-
periments demonstrate that this insect
winters in the straw as larva or pupa
emerging as an adult fly early in the
spring, these flies laying their eggs
upon the stems after they commence
to joint. AS the flies are very minute,
and nearly all are wingless, their
spread from field to field is slow, and
it seems entirely within the power of
the individual farmer to control this
insect by burning or otherwise de-
stroying the stubble in summer or
autumn, and burning the surplus Of
the straw not fed to stock early in
spring. A simple rotation of crops,
devoting land previously in wheat
to some other grain or to grass, will
answer instead of burning the stub
BILE.
"The life history Of the wheat bulb
worm (Meron1yza 0mericaaoD was
completed this year. The second or
summer brood did decided injury to
wheat in Fulton county, so many of
the heads being killed that some Of the
fields looked gray at a little distance.
This species was also injurious to rye,
but much less SO than to wheat. It
certainly does not attack oats at all :;
fields of that grain raised where
winter wheat had been destroyed by
it, and plowed up, being entirely free
from it, while wheat fields adjacent
We're badly damaged. We have good
evidence that postponement of SOW
ing to as late date as possible pre-
vents the ravages of this insect, in the
same way as it does those of the Hes
sian fly.
THE common rose chafer (uacro-
ddctytlts subspilaosus) greatly injur-
ed some fields of corn in VIII county,
the adult beetle devouring the leaves.
THE flea negro-bug' (T1byreocoris
puIicarius) was found injurious to
NJ