which attack cereal crops. 617 
side shoots abundantly, thus stocking themselves, as the 
farmers term it. No precise description of the insect 
was given, but in the accompanying plate the insect 
was represented in its different states, exhibiting the 
head of the fly marked with a triangular black spot; the 
thorax black, with two yellow longitudinal streaks; the 
scutellum yellow, and the abdomen pale-coloured. The 
subsequent proceedings of the fly and its progeny were 
not described. From Mr. Marsham’s supplemental note 
it appears that Sir Joseph Banks had also reared the 
fly from the roots of diseased wheat, and had determined 
it to be identical with the Musca pumilionis of Bjerkander, 
and by letter communicated the information to Mr. 
Arthur Young, accompanied with an engraving of the 
fly, both of which were published in the 91st number of 
the ‘Annals of Agriculture.’ Mr. Marsham comments 
on Bjerkander’s account, and speculates on the sub- 
sequent proceedings of the fly, which he recommends to 
the observation of farmers, shrewdly adding that, as the 
plant throws off side shoots abundantly, Bjerkander’s 
advice to pull up and burn the damaged plants cannot 
be considered as judicious. 
In the year 1812 the Agricultural Society of the Seine 
was officially consulted by the Minister of the Interior on 
the subject of the very extensive injury to cereal crops 
in different parts of France, and especially in the 
neighbourhood of Paris, by the attacks of insects. The 
celebrated entomologist M. Olivier was accordingly 
charged by the Society to investigate the history of the 
insects in question, and he published a first memoir on 
the subject in the ‘ Actes de la Société,’ tom xvi., p. 447. 
His death, however, prevented his further researches, 
and those of M. Victor Audouin, who subsequently 
undertook to prosecute the subject, were in like manner 
cut short by the premature death of the latter.* 
Olivier (Mém. sur quelques insectes qui attaquent les 
Céréales) gave short descriptions and excellent figures of 
several of these species of cereal Muscide, which (with 
one exception), have been overlooked by subsequent 
* It is greatly to be iyeratad that the numerous volumes of 
observations on the economy of many species of insects made by 
M. Audouin, accompanied by excellent drawings, still remain 
unpublished. 
TRANS. ENT. soc. 1681.—PaRtT Iv. (DEC.) 4L 
