the two most common viral diseases. Control can be achieved by using resistant varieties. Animal pests Wheat is used as a food plant by the larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species including the flame, rustic shoulder-knot, setaceous Hebrew character and turnip moth. Early in the season, many species of birds, including the long-tailed widowbird, and rodents feed upon wheat crops. These animals can cause significant damage to a crop by digging up and eating newly planted seeds or young plants. They can also damage the crop late in the season by eating the grain from the mature spike. Recent post-harvest losses in cereals amount to billions of dollars per year in the United States alone, and damage to wheat by various borers, beetles and weevils is no exception. Rodents can also cause major losses during storage, and in major grain growing regions, field mice numbers can sometimes build up explosively to plague proportions because of the ready availability of food. To reduce the amount of wheat lost to post-harvest pests, Agricultural Research Service scientists have developed an "insect-o-graph", which can detect insects in wheat that are not visible to the naked eye. The device uses electrical signals to detect the insects as the wheat is being milled. The new technology is so precise that it can detect 5–10 infested seeds out of 30,000 good ones. Tracking insect infestations in stored grain is critical for food safety as well as for the marketing value of the crop. See also Bran Chaff Effects of climate change on agriculture Gluten-free diet Mushroom production on wheat stalks Intermediate wheatgrass: a perennial alternative to wheat Taxonomy of wheat Wheatberry Wheat germ oil Wheat production in the United States Wheat middlings Whole-wheat flour References Further reading Aparicio, Gema, and Vicente Pinilla. "International trade in wheat and other cereals and the collapse of the first wave of globalization, 1900–38". Journal of Global History 14.1 (2019): 44–67. Bonjean, A.P., and W.J. Angus (editors). The World Wheat Book: a history of wheat breeding (Lavoisier Publ., Paris. 1131 pp. 2001). Erenstein, Olaf, Jordan Chamberlin, and Kai Sonder. "Estimating the global number and distribution of maize and wheat farms". Global Food Security 30 (2021): 100558. online Garnsey Peter. "Grain for Rome", in Garnsey P., Hopkin K., Whittaker C. R. (editors), Trade in the Ancient Economy. Chatto & Windus, London 1983 Head L., Atchison J., and Gates A. Ingrained: A