22 



Antials Entomological Society of America [Vol. Ill, 



single straw, one of which had just hatched." Also, in another 

 journal, we are told that specimens of infested straw were for- 

 warded to the "Countiy Gentleman" from Scipioville, New 

 York in 1879, which the sender stated contained eggs besides 

 lar\'ae and pupae. In both cases, the larvae were almost beyond 

 a douh)t those of Mcromyza americana. According to my own 

 obserx'ation, these mites attack the larvae of Meromyza americana 

 in stems, of wheat, and, when observed, one cannot fail to be 

 struck with the clearness with which the statements just gi\-en 

 describe larvae of this species in the stem of grain or grass being 

 attacked Ijy these mites, the gra\-id Q of which has every appear- 

 ance to the unaided eye of being a minute egg. It therefore seems 

 not improbable that this Pediciiloides was abroad over the 

 countr>' at the earlier date, 1845, "^vhich would antedate by sev- 

 eral years the description of the species by Newport in England; 

 who called attention to the occurrence of this mite as a parasite 

 in the nests of Anthophora retiisa, in a paper read March 5, 1S50, 

 before the Linnean Society of London, and with the 'description 

 published in the transactions of this Society, Volume XXI, 2, 



P- 95. 1853. 



In the account given by Dr. T. W. Harris in the second edition 

 of his "Insects Injurious to Vegetation" in connection with his 

 discussion of the early occurrences of the barley Isosoma, Isosoma 

 liordei, there are two very significant statements that ha\c until 

 lately puzzled me very greatly. On page 438, edition of 1S52, he 

 states that "in the summer of 183 1, myriads of these flies (mean- 

 ing the adult Isosoma) were found ali\'e in straw beds in Glouces- 

 ter; the straw having been taken from the fields the >'ear before. 

 An opinion at that time prevailed, that the troublesome humors, 

 wherewith many persons were then afflicted, were occasioned by 

 the bites of these flies; and it is stated that the straw beds of 

 Lexington, being found to be infested with the same insects, were 

 generally l:)urnt." The second reference occurs on page 440 of the 

 same volume, in which it is stated that "about eight years ago 

 (which would be about 1844) some of these insects (again referring 

 to /. hordei) that had come from a straw bed in Cambridge were 

 shown to me. They had proven \'ery troublesome to children 

 sleeping on the bed; their bites or stings lieing followed by consid- 

 erable inflammation and irritation, which lasted several days. 

 So numerous were the insects that it was found necessary to 

 empty the licd-tick and burn the straw." 



