No. 104.] 101 



coming year, that the larvae falling upon the floor should be fre- 

 quently swept up (if the floor was a tight one) and burned. If in 

 the sweeping the hvvse were liable to fall through the flooi--joinings, 

 it would be advisable to kill them as they lay on the floor, by sprink- 

 ling: from time to time with kerosene oil.' 



The following extracts are from s, letter received later from Mr. 

 Linsley in reply to the request made for additional information of the 

 them occurrence of the larvas : 



They came wholly from the second cutting of the clover, cut 

 about the 20th of September. They began to make their appearance 

 about four days after it was drawn into the barn. They came out 

 in such numbers that they looked like red sand upon the floor. This 

 continued for about two weeks, since which time I have not noticed 

 any of them. I destroyed what I could collect from the floor, but the 

 greater part of the hay being put into a mow, they were, of course, 

 out of reach for the most part. * * * * 



It is said that these weevils do not work in the Alsike, or large 

 pea-vine clover. This may be due to the fact that in these varieties 

 the first growth or cutting is used for seed, so that the seed matures 

 too early for the insect. But these varieties are far inferior to the 

 Medium clover and cannot well supply the place of it. The destruc- 

 tion of the crop of Medium clover-seed is a very serious loss to the 

 agricultural interest in this portion of the State, amounting to from 

 twenty to forty dollars per year on every farm of a hundred acres, 

 according to the market price of the seed. 



SciAKA sp. ? Occurring on Wheat. 



Examples of a small fly were received October 2d, from Dr. E. 

 L. Sturtevant, which "had appeared upon wheat " at the Experi- 

 ment Station. 



In our present limited knowledge of the species of this genus, a 

 generic determination only could be made of it. 



From what is known of the larval habits of the few species ot 

 Sciara that have been studied, and of their associated llycetophil- 

 idce, it IS not probable that the species sent was injurious to wheat. 

 The larvse, as a class, are not regarded as injurious, as many of 

 them are known to occur beneath the bark of felled trees, iii 

 decayed wood, in vegetable mould, in fungi, etc. 



From their frequent occurrence in boleti and fungi, Latreille bad 

 arranged the MycetophilidcB in his group of I'ungivores — one of the 

 five into which he divided the TipultdiB. A noted f ungivorous species 

 is the Sciara ThovuG Linn., of Europe, known as the " snake or 

 army-worm." The larv{i3 are remaikable for assembling in immense 

 numbers and hanging together by means of a viscid moisture in a 

 long mass resembling a snake or rope, sometimes several feet in 

 length, and two or three inches in breadth. Processions of these 

 larvse have been observed, massed m a breadth of three inches and 



