66 Observations on various Insects 



Secalc, TiHticiim, Avena, Ilordeunt, Bronnis, Dachjlis, Holcus, and 

 Poa. It feeds on the leaves of these plants, whereas Aphis 

 avencE prefers the flowers. 



Wingless female. — Oval, pale greenish-yellow. Front pro- 

 minent between the eyes ; antennae with l)rown tips, about one- 

 fourth of the length of the body ; abdomen brown at the tips ; 

 tubes with brown tips, about one-sixth of the length of the body ; 

 tarsi pale brown. 



Winged female. — Pale green, or yellowish-green ; antennae 

 brown or black, much shorter than the body, as long as the 

 body, or longer than the body; thorax buff; lobes pale brown; 

 abdominal tubes sometimes with black tips, one-sixth, or nearly 

 one-fourth, of the length of ti)e body ; tarsi and tips of the femora 

 and of the tibial brown or black ; wings vitreous ; stigma and 

 veins brown ; costa pale green, or pale yellow. 



Oviparous loingless female. — Straw-colour, buff, orange, or 

 rose-colour. 



Winged male. — Buff or pale orange ; head and disk of the 

 thorax brown or black ; antennas black, much longer than the 

 body ; alxlomen Avith a black line along the back, and a row of 

 black dots on each side. 



In 184] Mr. J. G. Lowder made some remarks upon the 

 failure of the seed of Festuca loliacea, which he attributed to 

 the presence of plant-lice. In a letter addressed to this Society 

 he says : — 



"This failure, I am much inclined to think, will be found to be occasioned 

 by the ravages of an insect of the Aphis tribe ; for on 10 out of the 11 seed- 

 .stallvs \vliicli I first collected I observed the heads of many such insects closely 

 imbedded between the valves of the flowers, obviously in the act of feeding, 

 and most probably extracting the saccharine matter. The germ, thus injured, 

 must necessarily be barren and unproductive." 



Having had no opportunity of examining the species alluded 

 to by Mr. Lowder, I am unable to give their name, but I con- 

 clude they are some of the aphides described by Mr. Walker. 



It is recorded that the slender fox-tail grass, spear-grass, or 

 black-bent (^Alopecurus agrestis), which is so troublesome a weed 

 amongst wheat, has a large portion of the seeds annually destroyed 

 by a minute orange-coloured maggot, no doubt the offspring of a 

 Cecidomgia, and probably the " wheat-midge." Indeed one can 

 scarcely examine a flower-spike of any grass Avithout finding an 

 abundance of these minute orange maggots ; but as the species 

 of midge has not been yet ascertained, I shall simply refer to 

 their history and economy in a former report,* where the wheat- 

 midge, Cecidomgia tritici, is described and figured. 



Meadow fox-tail grass {Alopccurus pratensis^ is subject to the 



* Roy. Agr, Jour., vol. vi. p. 139, pi. M. 



