Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/613

 WIIEATLEY ish, with sharp head and truncated tail, and have a quick wriggling motion; by the first of August they descend ahout half an inch into the earth, and there remain through the winter. The pupa is narrower, rufous, and WHEATON Wheat Fly (Cecidomyia tritici). sharp at both ends. An insect considered by Harris the same appeared in northern New England about 1828, whence it spread to Can- ada, Massachusetts, and New York, and dis- appeared only by being starved out by a change of crop or the substitution of late sown spring wheat. (See Harris, "On the Insects inju- rious to Vegetation.") The most efficacious remedies are fumigations with sulphur fqr several evenings in succession while the grain is in blossom ; lime and ashes strewn over them when wet with dew ; liming and plough- ing the soil into which they have burrowed ; and sowing late in spring or early in autumn. A little black ichneumon fly deposits her eggs within these larvae, and destroys many. WHEATLEY, Phillis, a negro poetess, born in Africa about 1753, died in Boston, Dec. 5, 1794. She was brought to Boston in 1761, was pur- chased by Mrs. "Wheatley, was instructed by her mistress and her daughters, and acquired a superior education. She wrote verses at the age of 14, and at 19 visited England, where she attracted much attention. A volume of her poems Avas published there, containing her portrait, and bearing the title, " Poems on va- rious Subjects, Religious and Moral, by Phillis Wheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. John Wheat- ley of Boston, in New England" (London, 1773). It was reprinted in Boston, and passed through several editions. The family of Mr. Wheatley being broken up by death, she mar- ried a negro named Peters, and her last days were spent in extreme want. Her letters were privately printed in 1864. WHEAT MOTH. There are two kinds of moths which do serious injury to grain crops, not only in America, but also in Europe, where they both originated ; one is the tinea granella,, frequently called corn moth, and the other the butalis or gelechia cerealella, which has received the name of Angoumois grain moth, from the district in France where its ravages first proved extensive. The first is a Tinea granella. minute insect, closely allied to the common clothes moth, belonging to the same family ttnokfa, The caterpillar which does the injury attacks stored grain and not the growinc wheat ; it is a small, soft, pale buff, cylindrical worm, with a dark head and dark spot behind the head and is scarcely half an inch in length when fully grown ; these caterpillars pass from one gram to another, gnawing large holes in them, and spinning little threads of silk wher- ever they go, so that grain much infested by them will frequently be entirely entangled in webs. It spins a cocoon made of grains of wood mingled with silk, much of the size and shape of the wheat grains, and emerges as a moth in the suc- ceeding summer, having very much the appearance of the clothes moth, ex- cept in its markings ; the wings are very long and narrow, and heavily fringed, spreading but little more than half an inch ; the upper wings are pale buff mottled with dark brown, and the under wings uniform pale brownish. The Angoumois grain moth belongs to the family yponomentadce, and is even smaller than the preceding ; yet so abundantly does it propagate itself that in France whole provinces have been threatened with famine by the almost to- tal destruction of their crops of barley and wheat. The upper wings are pale cinnamon brown, having the lustre of satin ; under wings of a leaden color, and very broadly fringed. About 76 eggs are laid by a single insect, spread about in groups upon three or four dif- ferent grains ; in a few days the caterpillars are hatched, and the work of destruction begins; each seeks a grain of wheat, into which it bur- rows, closing up the minute entrance; a single grain affords just sufficient nutriment to last the caterpillar during its life ; at maturity it is only about a third of an inch long, very smooth and quite white, with its head only a little brown ; it partitions off at one side of its abode the loose particles of rejected material by a thin web, and then eats a hole through the shell, leaving only so thin a pellicle as the escaping moth may break through, after which it changes within the grain to a smooth chry- salis, blunt at either end. There are two broods at least of the moth, one appearing in the autumn, and laying eggs to produce the caterpillars which live in the hearts of the grain during the winter, the other appearing as moths in the late spring, whose progeny require but a short time for their maturity. The best mode of checking their ravages ap- pears to be by kiln-drying the grain which has been attacked. WHEATON, Henry, an American publicist, born in Providence, R. I., Nov. 27, 1785, died in Dorchester, Mass., March 11, 1848. He graduated at Brown university (then Rhode Island college) in 1802, studied law, and after being admitted to the bar visited Europe. Soon after his return he settled in New York,