Some Factors Influencing Rates of Parasitism of the Wheat Stem Maggot in South Dakota

The wheat stem maggot, Meromyza americana Fitch, is distributed throughout most of the wheat growing areas of North America. Significant crop losses from this insect have been reported in wheat, rye, barley, and other grasses. Several investigators have studied the wheat stem maggot\u27s life history and listed its parasites, but no attempts have been made to evaluate the importance of the various parasites. The objective of this study was to investigate some of the factors that might influence the rate of parasitism and to learn the importance of individual parasite species. Most of the work was done during the growing seasons of 1966 and 1967 in north-central South Dakota, which is an important wheat growing area of the state. The project was cooperative with and used the facilities of the Northern Grain Insects research Laboratory, USDA, ARS, at Brookings, South Dakota