( '47 ) 



XII. Further Obfervatlons on the Cu radio Trifolji. hi a Letter to 

 William Markwich Efq, F, Z. S. by MarJin Chrijlian QrAtlieb Leb- 

 ma?^^ M.A* of Goitingen. 



'\ 3 1 



Re^i^ February ^^ i8oi« . 



Sir, 



VV HEN you favoured me, lafl: fummcr, with an account of the 

 damage done to your clover by a number of little maggots, and 

 permitted me to gather fomc of the injured flower- heads, I felt in- 

 terefted in the caufe, and became anxious to obferve the oeconomy 

 and changes of this litde deftru6live animal, and by my obfervations, 

 in addition to thofe which you had fent to the Linnean Society, to 

 endeavour to complete the hiftory of an enemy you had fo unfor- 

 tunately become acquainted with. 



As far as my limited knowledge in the fcience of entomology ex- 

 tends, nothing appears to have been hitherto publifhedof the nature 

 and habits of this infe6l. The French naturnliil: Geoffroy, who 

 firft defcribed the perfect animal, fays it is found on flowers, and 

 calls it le Becmare noir a paitesfauves^ but takes no notice of its Jarva. 

 Fabricius defcribes it as an Attelabus^ and obferves " Habitat primo 

 vere frequens locis apricis cafidioribus ;" which perfectly agrees with my 

 own obfervation, for it w^as the firfl infeiSl I found lail fpring in a 

 funny meadow near a fhrubbery. 



The blight©:! clover heads which J gathered in your grounds in 

 Augufl were, like all the reft in the field, full of maggots of different 



U 2 fizes. 



