76 PRIZE ESSAY : 



entire destruction of the growing grain. Its spread was so rapid 

 and uniform in all directions where its favourite food was culti- 

 vated, that, in 1832, we find the wheat crops greatly injured or 

 altogether destroyed in Vermont, New Hampshire, part of New 

 York and Pennsylvania, and damaged over a large area in Lower 

 Canada, 



135. Doubts have been expressed by European entomologists 

 as to the identity of the American wheat midge with the ceci- 

 domyia tritici, described by Mr. Kirby. In the spring of 1855, 

 however, Dr. Fitch sent some specimens of the American insect 

 to M. Amyot, a distinguished French entomologist. At the 

 meeting of the Entomological Society of France, November 14, 

 1855, M. Amyot announced the results of a most rigid examina- 

 tion, which he, in company with M. Lucas, had submitted the 

 specimens sent to him by Dr. Fitch. These entomologists find 

 the American insect perfectly identical with the European ceci- 

 domyia tritici, or wheat fly. This announcement leads to the 

 ■conclusion that our wheat midge is an importation as is the Hes- 

 :sian fly ; and an examination into the habits of the insect exhi- 

 i)its no peculiarity which can militate against the adoption of this 



■ conclusion. 



136. In 1740 the wheat fly was destructive in Scotland, during 

 'the winter of which year the Thames was frozen over. In Ellis' 

 Modern Husbandman for 1745, the attacks of the vast num- 

 bers of black flies (the ichneumon parasites) are noticed in the 

 following quaint terms : " after this we had a melancholy sight, 

 for as soon as the wheat had done blooming, vast numbers of 

 black flies attacked the wheat ears, and blowed a little yellow 

 maggot which ate up some of the kernels, in others part of them, 

 and which caused multitudes of ears to miss of their fulness, 

 acting in some measure like a sort of locust, till rain fell and 

 washed them oflF; and though this evil has happened in other 



