INJURIOUS INSECTS. 263 



als who have devoted their attention to collecting and describing 

 our American insects. 



At the commencement of the past summer, an early species of 

 grasSj called " June grass," in this vicinity, was in several situa- 

 tions prematurely destroyed, soon after flowering, the stalks from 

 some one of the joints upwards, withering and turning to a straw 

 color, and to such an extent that one person informs me, on casu- 

 ally approaching his meadow one morning, it presented so white 

 an appearance, that his first thought was that it was covered with 

 hoar-frost. The connection of the stem immediately above the 

 joint, seemed to be entirely destroyed, so that the slightest force 

 withdrew it from its sheath, by which alone it continued to be 

 sustained in an upright position. From the analogy of this affec- 

 tion, to that produced by the Hessian fly in wheat, I infer it to 

 have been probably caused by a kindred species of cecidomyia. 



Though my attention has not been directed to the detection of 

 additional species till since the commencement of the present 

 year, three species have already occurred to my notice. The 

 larva of one of these inhabits the buds of our common alder ; 

 another occurs upon the sides and the third upon the tips of wil- 

 low twigs, each of them producing those excrescences denomina- 

 ted galls. I have not as yet succeeded in forcing forward into its 

 perfect state, and am therefore prepared to give an adequate 

 account of but one of these. 



CECIDOMYIA SALICIS. (pL. II. FIG. I.) 



Black ; hirsute ; wings lurid, inner margins ciliate ; beneath, abdomen white- 

 pubescent, legs lurid. 

 Length 0.18. Wings expand 0.35. 



Description. Head oval, transverse, scarcely half the width 

 of the thorax, with a ruffle of fine velvet-like hairs surrounding 

 jits base. Jlntennoi shorter than the thorax, moniliform, slightly 

 and gradually diminished in diameter towards their tips ; joints 

 twenty in number in the males, each with a few very minute hairs 

 Idirected forwards, in females sixteen, each verticillated with 

 longer and coarser hairs. JVec/c in recent specimens chesnut-yel- 

 low, distinct and slightly elevating the head as though on a pedi- 

 cel. Thorax broad-ovate, the length and breadth equal and the 

 anterior part slightly narrower ; two impressed longitudinal lines 

 on the back, slightly converging posteriorly, and densely set with 



