Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/549

* WHEATEAR. 463 WHEATLEY. has a pleasant, but not loud song, and sings well in conlinement. in winter as well as in summer. WHEAT GKASS. See Agropykon. WHEAT INSECTS. In Europe fifty-three species of insects are recorded by Kaltenliacli to feed upon wheat; in Xortli America llic number is surely mucli larger. Except the chinch-bug and the Hessian lly (<|r|.v.), which arc tlic most dreaded, the following are the most important species. The wheat-midge {Diiilosis tritici) was prob- ably imported into the United States from Europe, first into the Province of Quebec, spread- ing gradually through the New England States into New York and westward throughout the Mississippi Valley. The orange or yellow adult insect, which appears in early summer and is one-tenth of an inch long, lays small and pale- red eggs singly or in clusters in the crevices in the wheat-heads, from the kernels of which the small orange-yellow larvae extract the milky juice, causing the grain to shrivel and the heads to blight. hen full-grown the larva-, which live about three weeks, descend to the ground and form small cocoons, in which they hiltornate. Deep plowing of wheat fields and the prompt burning of chatT and screenings after threshing are the best remedies. The joint-worin of wheat (Isosoma tritici), a true gall-insect of the family Chalcidida-, most species of which are parasites, is a small, black, four-winged fly, a little over an eighth of an inch long. Its eggs are laid in the wheat-stalk, where the larvae produce little oblong galls, usu- ally in groups of three or four, at or near the joints. (See Joint- Worm.) The wheat straw- worm [Isosoma grriii/Jc), a close relative which produces no galls, but lives on the inner surface of the stems, is of great interest, since it has an alternation of the generations, the sexual genera- tion being wingless and rather small and the summer generation large, winged, and composed entirely of parthenogenetic females. Burning the stubble during the fall or winter is recom- mended as a control for both these species. Several species of plant-lice are occasionally found upon wheat; the wheat plant-louse [Nee- tarophord ccrcolis). probably a European spe- cies, is frequently troublesome. The wheat bulb-worm ( Mcromysa Americana) is, in the adult stage, a small, greenish, black- striped fly of the family Oscinidte, which also attacks other cereals, timothy, and the blue grass throughout the wheat belt, where it develops three or more generations annually. The flies lay their eggs upon the young plants, and the pale-green maggots work their way down to the crown and feed upon the central part of the stem, exitting it off and causing the central blade to wither. Prompt burning of the straw and stubble after harvest and rotation of crops are recommended. The army-worm and the grass- worm (qq.v.) are dangerous enemies of the wheat crop, and there are several sawflies which do a lesser amount of damage. The principal European insect enemies of the crop are the frit-fly (Oscinis frit), the Hessian fly, the wheat-midge, and a stem-borer — one of the 'sawflies {Cepluis pitfl'nwus) just mentioned, which appears as an adult in April and deposits eggs in the stems of young wheat. The larvse bene through the joints and work up and down the stem, and when full-grown cut and almost saw the straw circularly on the inside near the ground, forming a cocoon in which they pass the winter as larvie, transfiuiiiing to pupae and issu- ing as adults the fcdlowing summer. This in- sect has been imported, and is known in Canada and New York, but is rather scarce and does little damage; in Europe it is ranked as one of the principal enemies. Stored wheat sufl'ers fnmi the attacks of sev- eral insects. The gran;iry weevil, the rice weevil, the Angoumois grain moth, the wolf moth, the Mediterranean llour moth, the Indian- meal moth, the meal snout-moth, and .several species of flour-beetles and meal-worms, as well as certain of the grain-beetles (see Graix-Ix.sects), feeil upon wheat in storage and after it is ground. The remedies for all of these insects are practi- cally identical, and coiii]U-isc cleanliness and the treatment uf bins or establishments with the vapor of bisulphide of carbon, or with hydrocyanic acid gas, both of which, however, should be applied with great care, and in accordance with specific rules laid down by economic entomologists. Consult; Marlatt. The Principal Insect Ene- mies of Oroirin/i ^yheat (Department of Agri- culture, Washington, 1001): Chittenden, Home Insects Injurious to Stored Grain (ib., 1897). WHEAT'LEY, Henry Benjamin (18.38—). An English scholar and bibliographer, born at Chelsea, London, May 2, 18.38. He was educated privately. He was clerk of the Eoyal Society (1801-70) : took an active part in founding the Early English Text Society (q.v.), of which he has been honorary secretary: was appointed assistant secretary to the British section of the Chicago Exhibition ; and became, in 1879, as- sistant secretary to the Society of Arts. For the Early English Text Society, he edited Alexander Hume's Of the Orthot/rapliie and Congruitie of the Britain Tonf/ve (18(15) ; the prose romance of Ucr/i)! (1865-69); the Manipulus Vocabit- lorum of Peter Levins (1868). He was also one of the founders of the Index Society, whose pub- lications began with his What Is an Index? (1879). He compiled a General Index to the Works of De Quincei/ (180.3), and edited Wrax- all's nistoricul and Posthumous Memoirs (5 vols., 1884). and, most important of all. Pepf/s's Diari/, including Pepijsiana (9 vols.. 1893-09). He is also the author of On Anaf/rnms (1802) ; Round Ahont Piccadilh/ and Pall Mall (1870) ; Samuel Pcpys and the World He Lived In (1880); Horn to Form a Library (1880); Re- markahle Bindincis in the Britisli Museum (1889) : London Past'and Present (1891) : /yi(cr- aru Blunders (1893); and Historical Portraits ( 1897 ) . WHEATLEY, Phillis -(c.1753-84) . An American negro poet, born in Africa. She was brought to the United States in 1761 and pur- chased by John Wheatley. of Boston. He had her well educated, and she soon showed remarkable intellectual quickness. When still a girl, she wrote many verses, and in 1773, a year before, she visited England, her Poems on Various Sub- jects, Relifiious and Moral, hy Phillis Wheatley, yeyro Servant to Mr. John Wheatley. of Boston, in yeir England, were published in London with the indorsement of several distinguished men.