374 



Professor Fletcher states that while the injury appears first on Poa 

 prate7isis, it is afterwards observed on Timothy, Phleumpratense, Conch 

 Grass, Triticum repens, T. caninum, and Poa serotlna. 



In June, 18S6, while at home from the South for a short time, and 

 while examining a quantity of injured Blue-grass steins, I found two 

 pupte resembling, in a general way, that of Mcromyza americana, but 

 smaller, and agreeing reasonably well with the description given by 

 Forbes of the specimen found by him in Timothy. Being obliged to 

 leave home again in a few days, for an indefinite period, a quantity of 

 injured stems from the immediate locality was forwarded to the De- 

 partment, but no adults were reared from them. 



From the appearance of injured stems of Blue- grass I am confident 

 that there are at least two entirely different species engaged in this work, 

 one of which is some species of Diptera, possibly identical with that 

 found by Forbes, in Illinois, and also with the species observed in 

 Canada; the other belonging to some species of insect which extracts 

 the juices of the culm without destroying the tissue. Both of these 

 insects, if there are not, indeed, a much larger number engaged in this 

 work, without doubt occur in Indiana. 



Early in August, 1884, in the vicinity of Oxford, Ind., I found many 

 of the stems of Panic Grass, Panicum crus-gallij infested just above 

 the upper joint with a larva, in some respects resembling that of 

 Meromyza americana. From a quantity of affected stems I reared a 

 considerable number of adult flies, which proved to belong to an un- 

 determinable species of Chlorops. These larviie are much larger than 

 those found in Blue-grass in 18SG, and are of distinct species without 

 much doubt. 



Near the same locality, and about the same time, I found the Bottle 

 Grass, Setaria glauca, affected in much the same manner, and rather ex- 

 l)ected to find the Chlorops larv.ie doing the injury ; but an examination 

 revealed the fact that these larv;e were Coleopterous, and they were 

 afterwards determined by Professor Riley as those of Centrinus picum- 

 nus nbst., a small snout beetle, of the family Curculionidae, and not 

 uncommon in Illinois and Indiana. 



Another larva, differing from either of the preceding, was observed 

 burrowing in the terminal internode of a species of grass belonging to 

 the genus Muhlenbergia, possibly M. mexicana Trin. This last larva 

 was lost in the mails, and I have not since observed them affecting 

 this grass. I have not yet been able to rear from or even observe any 

 insect burrowing in the stems of Timothy; but there is scarcely a year 

 that some of the heads do not turn white, in June, from some injury 

 near the upper joint. 



