wheat-midge

Definitions

noun A dipterous insect of the family Cecidomyiidæ, Diplosis tritici, which lays its eggs in the flowers of wheat-heads, and whose minute reddish larvæ devour the kernels.
noun A dipterous insect, Lasioptera obfuscata.

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We have in America thus far escaped, and as singularly as fortunately, the importation of the wheat-midge which has been the scourge of the grain-fields of Europe: it will, doubtless, some time be a passenger on our Atlantic ships or steamers; it will commence its work; and then man has the task of importing its natural antagonists, of promoting their spread, and so of compensating the evil.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864 Various
Those known as _flycatchers_ may do neither harm nor good; so far as they eat the wheat-midge and Hessian fly they confer a positive benefit; in other instances they destroy both friends and enemies.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 275, April 9, 1881 Various
The cotton-worm, the wheat-midge, the canker-worms, the potato-bugs, are each every year increasing in numbers and destructiveness.

The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato. Prize offered by W. T. Wylie and awarded to D. H. Compton. How to Cook the Potato, Furnished by Prof. Blot. D. A. Compton 1846
A lighted lamp placed in the centre of a common milk-pan, partly filled with water, the whole elevated a few feet from the ground, will, on a still evening, attract and destroy the wheat-midge and similar insects in great numbers.

The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato. Prize offered by W. T. Wylie and awarded to D. H. Compton. How to Cook the Potato, Furnished by Prof. Blot. D. A. Compton 1846