PAcicAKD.] INSECTS OF THE GARDEN. 5 



cause nor the direction has hitherto been discovered. I v/as 

 authentically informed that some persons cmploj'ed in raising 

 the steeple of the church in "NVilliamstown, were, Tvliilc stand- 

 ing near the vane, covered by them, and saw, at the same 

 time, vast swarms of them flying far above their heads. It 

 is to be observed, however, that they customarily return and 

 perish on the ver}- grounds which they have ravaged." In 

 the western plains the long-winged Caloptenus (C. sjyretus, 

 Fig. 1 a) is still more destructive. 



I might also cite the annual loss sustained by the attacks 

 of the wheat midge and Hessian fly, the state of New York 

 having lost, according to Dr. Fitch, 812,000,000 worth of 

 wheat in one j-ear. 100,000 bushels of wheat could be raised 

 annually in the state of JMaine if it were not for these two 

 insects. Among the more formidable pests in the south and 

 west are the cotton boll worm, army worm and the chinch 

 bug, from which farmers annually lose thousands of dollars. 



For the greater or less abundance of insects, as one 3-ear 

 succeeds another, one can readily understand that the vicis- 

 situdes of the climate, the abundance of a particular kind 

 of food, the temporary absence of i)arasites and external 

 enemies are sufficient to account. But for the vast numeri- 

 cal increase of insects, which are ordinarily sehlom observed, 

 and whose lives at the most span but a few months or weeks, 

 v.e cannot so satisfactorily account. 



Moreover, there are great injuries received from the long 

 sustained attacks, renewed annually, of insects such as the 

 wheat fly and farm and forest insects. A late report of a 

 committee of the French Senate, which we find translated 

 into the " Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal," "states 

 that the wire worm consumed £100,000 worth of corn in 

 one department alone, and was the cause of the deficient 

 harvests which preceded 1856. Out of 504 grains of colza 

 gathered at hazard at Versailles, all but 29G had been ren- 

 dered worthless by insects. The reduction of yield in oil 



