1864.] (ill 



contain no cell and no visible larva. What is the cause of this pheno- 

 menon I cannot say with certainty, but I suspect that the egg or the 

 very young larva of the Gall-gnat is to a great extent destroyed within 

 the gall by being punctured and sucked by some insect foe, and that 

 that foe probably belongs to Thripklse,.'* Authors have hitherto always 

 considered this remarkable Family as vegetable-feeders, but from many 

 facts which I have observed, one of which I have recorded Proc. Eitt. 

 Soc. Phil. 1. p. 310, I believe that they are generally, if not univer- 

 sally, insectivorous, and that those that occur on the ears of the wheat, 

 both in the U. S. and in Europe, are preying there upon the eggs or 

 larvae of the Wheat Midge (Cec. Tritici), and are consequently not the 

 foes, a.s has been generally imagined, but the friends of the farmer. In 

 confirmation of these views, it may be remarked, that the very same 

 species ( Thrips cerealium), which has been stated by all P]uropean au- 

 thors to attack the ears of the wheat, was found by Vassalli Eandi in 

 Italy " to gnaw the stems of the wheat above the knots and cause the 

 abortion of the ear." (See Westw. Intr. II. p. 4.) Is it probable that the 

 same species should attack the same plant in two such very diflFerent 

 parts? I believe that the Italian Thnpsvfere attacking Hessian Flies 

 ( Cec. (lestructo)-). or some such wheat-destroying insects that inhabit 

 "the stem above the knots," and that it was these last, and not the 

 Thrips^ that caused the " abortion of the ear." The Thrips that were 

 supposed to do so much damage in Wisconsan. as related by Dr. Fitch, 

 {N. Y. Rep. I. p. 304). were said to attack both the blossoms of the wheat 



*Dr. Fitch, perhaps because Dr. Harris had seen fit to alter the Aphidae of 

 preceding authors into Aphididae — which may or may not be right, according to 

 whether we consider the analogies of the noun Aphis to be with the Greek Chri/- 

 sis or with the Latin Apis — asserts that the Thripidce of preceaing authors is 

 incorrect and ought to be written ThripididoE, and adopts that anomalous orthog- 

 raphy himself. (N. Y. Rep. I. p. 305.) Scientific names are generally sufficient- 

 ly long, without interpolating unnecessary syllables, and in this case the in- 

 terpolation is manifestly not only unnecessary, but solecistie. Thrips is a 

 genuine Greek word, with a genitive case Thripos, from which is regularly 

 derived the patronymic form Thripidce.. just as from the Greek noun Sphinx, 

 genitive case Sphingos, comes the patronymic Sphingidoe. We might as well 

 write Sphingididce as Thripididoe. It is true these are trivial matters; but when 

 an author undertakes to set the whole scientific world right, even on the most 

 trivial point, he should tirst take care to be himself in the right. 



