220 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
excepting the mustard plant, and such is their tenacity of life they 
will withstand the application of quicklime. The extent of the 
loss to the farmer is often equal to half the value of the entire 
crop. 
Perhaps there is hardly a worse pest to the agricultural interest 
in this country than the larva of the crane-fly, or daddy-long-legs, 
Tipula oleracea. [Two years ago we had an almost total failure of 
the hop harvest, resulting from an unusually severe attack of the 
hop aphis. As a consequence, hops went up from £4 to £40 per 
cwt., and some brewers were known to use chemicals, quassia 
chips, and other abominations, as substitutes for hops. The loss 
to the planters was estimated at the sum of £1,750,000, say one 
million and three quarters sterling, and the loss to the field labourers 
amounting to £ 200,000. | 
There is an insect called the wheat-midge, Cectdomyia tritice, 
and its grub is known as the red maggot. ‘“ This insect is of a 
minute and delicate form ; it deposits its eggs amongst the glomes 
of the flowerets of the wheat by means of its ovipositor, which is 
very long and retractile within the body.” These gnats measure 
% of an inch in the body, and have very long legs and horns in 
proportion; they are immensely prolific, as many as thirty-five 
have been counted on a single ear of wheat in the act of oviposit- 
ing. The larva are hatched in eight or ten days; they eat the 
pollen, and thus prevent the formation of the corn. The loss 
sustained is incalculable. 
Another species of this family ravages the American wheat. It 
attacks the plant as soon as it appears above ground, and entirely 
prevents its growth by eating into the stem. It there goes by the 
name of the Hessian-fly and the scientific name Cecidomyta 
destructor. The alarm occasioned in the British mind some 
years ago caused the Privy Council to pass a stringent law to prevent 
its importation. Much more recently, however, the British mind 
was exercised in reference to the approach of the dreaded Colorado 
beetle, which had committed such havoc abroad. 
Considering the magnitude of the depredations of insects all 
over the world, but more especially in hot countries, it is surprising 
that so little importance is attached to the subject, book writers 
usually dismissing it in a few lines. 
My connection with the rice and corn trade brings under my 
observation the extensive damage done by Weevils on foreign 
importations, and it is easy to see that, whatever precautions are 
taken, it is impossible to prevent foreign genera being imported, 
and the exotic becoming a perfectly naturalized animal. 
All the rice, and more than half the wheat consumed in this 
country is imported, and nearly every cargo that arrives is infested 
by Weevils. It is difficult to ascertain the loss; we have no exact 
