21 



interpret her sacred mysteries, that nothing shall go to waste, nothing 

 be lost, nothing be created in vain, whether in the animal or in the 

 vegetable kingdom; and that even death and decay and corruption 

 shall, by her holy alchemy be transmuted everywhere, in the most 

 bountiful profusion, into life and health and happiness. 



The second of the two Guests is a species of Midge, belonging to 

 the genus Sciara and to the same group of Two-winged Flies as the 

 notorious Wheat Midge, commonly known in Illinois as "the Eed 

 Weevil," {Cecidomyia tritici, Kirby), and the equally notorious Hes- 

 sian Fly {Cecidomyia destructor, S.ay). We may call it in English 

 *'the Grape Midge." It is a small, slender, long-legged, blackish Fly, 

 measuring to the tips of its wings about one-tenth of an inch, and with 

 no conspicuous markings whatever. The genus to which it belongs is a 

 rather extensive one, no less than seven U. S. species (not three as in- 

 correctly stated by Dr. Fitch, N. Y. Rep. I. p. 255) having been de- 

 scribed by a single author, Thos. Say; and moreover the species are 

 difficult to distinguish from one another, owing to the monotonous 

 uniformity of their coloration.* I think that my grape-inhabiting 

 species is probably identical with the Fickle Midge {Sciara [molobi-us] 

 inconstans) of Dr. Fitch, which is described by him as making its 

 appearance at the same unseasonable time of the year — the latter part 

 of December — and as running about in the same fickle, rapid, rest- 

 less manner as I have observed mine to do. Of this Guest-fly, from 

 the same lot of about fifty infested grapes from which I had previ- 

 ously bred the Grape Cureulio and the Guest-beetle, I obtained ISTo- 

 vember 19th — 39th, no less than thirty-five specimens; and probably, 



*Having found the descriptions of Say's seven species and Fitch's five 

 species of this genus very unsatisfactory, and being unable to separate into 

 distinct species scores of specimens which I had captured at different times, 

 though, by way of guide, I had, besides the "Grape Midge," considerable num- 

 bers of two distinct species which I had formerly bred from larvae found in 

 decaying wood, I sent specimens of the "Grape Midge" to our great N. A, 

 Dipterist, Baron Osten-Saeken, with a request that he would, if possible, 

 determine the species to which it rightfully belonged. For the benefit of 

 young entomologists, I give liis reply in this note, without making any alter- 

 ation in my text. He had previously expressed to me the same opinions with 

 regard to the allied genus Ceratopogon, and I have myself published nearly 

 the same views with reference to another allied genus, Cecidomyia. 



"Your fly is certainly Sciara, but the species is indeterminable. I 

 would not give anything for the determination even of a European Sciara. 

 It is a difficult genus which lias never been satisfactorily studied. The num- 

 ber of species seems to be very large, their coloring uniform, and their char- 

 acteristic marks unknown. One does not know what to take hold of in de- 

 scribing such a species." 



