218 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
of an inch long, with a growth at the head and bottom, much 
resembling (in miniature) a niche in the wall of a cathedral. 
The larve were actively twisting about, evidently full-grown, for 
in a few days they left the stalks and buried themselves in the 
light soil from the field. 
Specimens were sent (by the owner of the field) to the Board 
of Agriculture and Fisheries for name and information how to 
treat the pest which had attacked the wheat and barley. The 
advisers of the Board informed the owner that ‘‘ the wheat was 
suffering from an attack of the Hessian Fly!” 
As I had worked out the life-history of this destructive insect, 
I felt fully justified in flatly contradicting this statement, and 
some months after, when all the larve had buried themselves 
and so got beyond control, the advisers then informed the owner 
that the larve were those of Diplosis aurantiaca, ‘(a dangerous 
wheat pest”; but, so far as I can ascertain, this was about all 
that was done by the Board of Agriculture. 
I sent a photograph of the injured stalks to Dr. L. Howard, 
the United States Entomologist and Head of the Bureau of Ento- 
mology, Board of Agriculture; but he was glad to say that 
nothing of the kind had been seen in America, and that it was 
quite new to him. 
I kept my larve in the soil until June of this year, when I 
found several in very much the same condition as when I last 
saw them. I asked Mr. Mainland to send me a good supply, 
which he did on June 12th. Some of these I observed change to 
pup, which very much resembled the larve in colour. Previous 
to pupating, the larve, by twisting and twirling, managed to 
bury themselves and scoop out a small oval chamber, in which 
they changed to pup. Some of these I ruptured in digging up, 
but in others observed the larval skin cast and the pupa evolved. 
At first the legs were difficult to discern, as they scarcely pro- 
jected beyond the body. In the course of a week the wings and 
eyes began to darken, and the leg-sheaths were more distinct ; 
the abdomen, too, and the dark dorsal marks became visible, 
until, just a month after pupating, I bred six of the female flies. 
These, together with my original photograph of the injured 
stalks, I forwarded to Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, who placed them in 
the hands of Mr. E. E. Austen, the Dipterist at the Natural 
History Museum, who very kindly searched out the true name— 
viz. Clinodiplosis equestris (of Wagner)—whose figure of the 
injured stalk agreed in every respect with my photograph. It 
appears that Wagner obtained his first specimens in 1865 and 
1866 from Fulga, Cassel, Germany, but it has not been much 
heard of since that time. 
Being anxious to learn all I could of this extraordinary 
“pest,” I determined to visit the infected field near Tenby. On 
June 23rd Mr. and Miss Mainland visited the field, and observed 
