Note 65 — Chapter X · SPECIALITIES OF THESE RELATIONS.

I am told that “Wagner, who described the larva, found that it bored into the bark of trees. It attacks also the wheat plant, and is a most destructive parasite.” Apparently this statement is at variance with the foregoing inference. It is clear, however, that since these heaps of nitrogenous refuse in which it has been found are artificial and recent, they cannot be its natural habitats; and it seems not improbable that these larvæ, suddenly supplied with a more nutritive food in unlimited amount, may have as a consequence acquired this habit of agamogenetic multiplication which did not characterize the species under its natural conditions and relatively low nutrition.