16 
Professor Forbes, I am led to believe, from my recollections of the 
specimens, that the pupze were enveloped in a thin, transparent and 
closely adhering puparium. Such puparia are recorded of species. 
of Chlorops—nearly allied forms, and occurring under almost iden- 
tical conditions.” 
The first recorded notice of the occurrence of this insect in Ilhi- 
nois which I have been able to find, (and this is a doubtful one,) 
is in the Prairie Farmer for July 17, 1880, although there can be 
no question that the fly really existed here many years before, pro- 
bably, indeed, from the earliest settlement of the State. In the 
above number, Dr. Thomas refers to this species with considerable 
hesitation, (and I think incorrectly), some pale cream-yellow larve 
found burrowing in the pith of the stalk, just above the lower joints. 
My own first note on this insect was published in circular No. 
96, of the State Department of Agriculture, April 1, 1883, in which, 
under the name of the ‘‘wheat-bulb worm,” I reported it as a serious 
enemy to winter wheat in Fulton county, and in other parts of 
Central and Southern Illinois; described and figured the larva, and 
gave an account of its injury to wheat. The object of the note was 
to elicit information respecting its distribution in the State, and the 
amount of its injuries, before it should escape observation by trans- 
forming to the fly, and I consequently did not wait to breed it, but 
issued the circular without scientific name. Later, having reared 
the larva to the imago, and obtained the eggs of the latter, I de- 
scribed and figured the insect in all its stages in the ‘‘Prairie 
Farmer’ for Aug. 4, 7833, gave a brief resumé of its life history, 
and of the literature relating to it, and a fuller account of its in- 
juries to wheat. In the meantime, an article by Mr. John Marten 
had appeared in the ‘‘Prairie Farmer” for May 29th, 1683, describ- 
ing the autumnal injury to wheat, and correctly attributing it to 
this insect, which Mr. Marten seems to have bred from larve 
found in wheat. 
NOMENCLATURE. 
Although this insect has had the good fortune to escape repeated 
christening and description as a new species, it has received three 
common names, given it respectively by Fitch, Lintner and myself. 
The former writer followed the thoroughly unphilosophical and use- 
less practice of constructing vernacular names by anglicizing the 
technical Latin names of genus and species, and hence called this the 
“American Meromyza.” Prof. Lintner selected for it the title of 
“wheat-stem maggot,” having had his attention called only to the 
injury done in summer by burrowing in the upper part of the 
stem; and I[, knowing it at first only from the base of the stem 
immediately above the root, where it works in fall and spring, 
adopted for it the name of wheat-bulb worm, given by Miss Ormerod 
to a European larva of the same family, which attacks wheat in the 
old world at the same season and in the same way. 
It seems important that tlte common name of an injurious insect 
should, as far as possible, draw attention to its most characteristic and 
serious injury; and | have for this reason retained in this article 
the name based upon the injuries of this species to growing wheat. 
