606 Prof. Westw8d on the minute Diptera 
June, and living gregariously between the leaf-sheath 
and the stalk, and eating the straw, which in consequence 
becomes warty, notched, and crooked, and afterwards 
dies. 
Several minute species of the family Muscide are also 
very injurious to our Cereal crops, which they attack, in 
their immature state as small footless larve, either by 
feeding upon the heart of the young plants when just 
above the surface of the ground, or at a later period 
of the year upon the young and juicy stems, or on the 
grains and pollen. 
As unfortunately there is considerable confusion in the 
published accounts of the different species of these small 
Muscide, and as the works in which such accounts 
originally appeared are for the most part of difficult 
access, and the abstracts which have been published of 
them by compilers have not been sufficiently precise, 
several of the most important memoirs themselves 
having been overlooked, it will doubtless be considerably 
useful to give a short account of the different species 
and their bibliography. 
Oscinis Frit. 
The first memoir on the Cereal insects was published 
by Linneus in the Transactions of the Stockholm 
Academy, 1750, p. 128 (translated in the German edition 
of those Transactions, and published in Band 12, Ham- 
burg and Leipzig, 1754, p. 187) with the title ‘“‘ Unter- 
suchung der tauben Gerste”’ (barley). 
The description of this insect is thus given by Lin- 
nus :— 
“Musca Frit, antennis setariis; pilosa, nigra; halteri- 
bus, plantis posticis abdomineque virescenti pallidis. 
“Linn., Act. Stockholm, 1750, p. 128, ubi historiani 
dedi. Fauna Suecica, p. 456. (Syst. Nat., p. 994, No. 90). 
“Hab. Intra glumas Hordei, granum facile decimum 
quodque destruens unde Frit s. Grana hordei viliora 
levioraque prognascuntur maximo damno agricolarum 
‘‘ dispendio annuo ultra 100,000 ducatorum aureorum.” 
Desc. Magnitudo Pulicis. Corpus figura M. domestice 
agilissimum quasi saltatorium nigrum. Oculi fusci. 
Plantz posticiz pallide. Halteres pallidi. Abdomen 
fuscum, subtus magis pallide virens.”’ 
