PEAR GNAT MIDGE. 121 



on two trees, but they are all attacked by grubs within. ^ If 

 you cut one open you will see the culprits. The same thing 

 happened last year, causing the destruction of a crop, as 

 well as in addition having destroyed a fine crop of Beaune 

 Bachelier. ... I have not heard of a similar case in this 

 neighbourhood, and during my previous experience of many 

 years I never met with or heard of their appearance here." — 

 (C.E.L.). 



This Pear attack has long been known on the Continent, 

 and is described in Kollar's ' Insects,' published in 1837 in 

 Vienna (English translation, with notes by Prof. Westwood, 

 published in 1840) ; but with one exception of some affected 

 Pears noticed by Mr. H. Eeeks, of Thruxton, in 1874 or 1875, 

 the attack does not appear to have been noticed in Britain 

 until the observations sent me in 1883, of which Mr. K. H, 

 Meade, F.E.S., remarked that my article on the Pear Midge 

 in my ' Eeport of Observations of Injurious Insects for 1883 ' 

 was, so far as he knew, "the first recorded notice of the insect 

 in this country."* 



Still, though the attack was well known in Germany, and 

 had become known here, there was great uncertainty as to 

 the technical entomological appellation which was to be 

 accepted for this Pear Gnat Midge ; and we were greatly 

 indebted to the careful observations of the Rev. E. N. Bloom- 

 field, of Guestling, near Hastings, who in 1885 enabled us to 

 clear up what was wanting in the life-history to determine 

 the name. 



From consultation over Mr. Bloomfield's specimens by 

 skilled referees, amongst whom I may mention the well- 

 known entomologists, Mr. R. H. Meade, Mr. Peter Inchbald, 

 and Mr. E. A. Fitch, there was no doubt that our newly- 

 observed Gnat Midge was identical with the species first 

 recorded as injurious in the U.S.A. in 1884, and determined 

 by Dr. C. V. Eiley, Entomologist of the Board of Agriculture 

 of the U. S. A., as Diplosis })yrivora. 



This attack is considered to have been imported into 

 America on Pear-stocks from France in 1877, and so far as 

 evidence points was also a foreign importation to this country. 

 Here, however, it is only occasionally complained of as 

 troublesome, whilst in the U.S.A. its spread was extra- 

 ordinarily rapid, t 



The "midge" which causes the mischief is a very small 

 two-winged gnat-like fiy, only about one line (the twelfth of 



* See Diplosis injrivora , Eiley ; " The Pear Gnat," by R. H. Meade, F.E.S., 

 the 'Entomologist,' vol. xxi. pp. 123-131. 



t See, for much useful information on this attack, "The Pear Midge 

 {Diplosis injrivora, Piiley)," Bulletin 99 of New Jersey Agricultural College 

 Experimental Station, April 4th, 1894. 



