SECRETARY'S REPORT. 185 



brilliant colors, in which golden yellow predominates, the 

 abdomen in many cases being banded alternately with this 

 color and reddish brown or black. Some species belonging to 

 this family live in the nests of humble-bees, upon the larvai of 

 which they feed ; others pass their preparatory stages in rotting 

 wood, manure, or stagnant water, and a few are sometimes 

 injurious to the cultivator. 



The family Muscidcc of Westwood, comprises hundreds of 

 genera, and several thousand species, among them not only the 

 house-fly, the blow-fly, the onion-fly, and other annoying and 

 hurtful insects, but also those included in the genus Tachina 

 of Fahricius, (from the Greek, meaning swift,) to which we are 

 indebted for the destruction of multitudes of noxious cater- 

 pillars ; the parent fly gluing her eggs to the skin of the 

 caterpillar, on whose flesh the larva feeds. Several specie^ of 

 this genus are found in this State, and one or two at least con- 

 tribute in no small degree to check the increase of the " army 

 worm." Benjamin D. Walsh, Esq., of Illinois, discovered a 

 new species attacking the same insect in the West, and has 

 given a description of it in a very interesting and valuable 

 paper, entitled " Insects Injurious to Vegetation in Illinois," 

 which was published in the Transactions of the Illinois Natural 

 History Society for the year 1861, and contains the results of 

 careful study and observation. 



I have endeavored to give in the foregoing pages a few facts 

 in favor of our insect friends, and hope, notwithstanding the 

 brief space allotted to this subject, to awaken such an interest 

 in this branch of Natural History, as will lead others to study 

 it for themselv-es, and obtain sufficient information to be able to 

 distinguish the good from the evil. I am fully aware of my 

 inability to treat the subject as it deserves, but " every little 

 helps." I believe that the study of Entomology may be made 

 of practical value to the farmer, and hence I have devoted 

 considerable time and labor to this task. Care has been taken 

 to explain all unusual terms, so as to enable any one who is 

 anxious to learn something of this science, to read the more 

 technical and valuable works of learned authors understand- 



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