236 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



the account already given from Mr. Gullet, shows that it was known 

 in England at least twenty-five jears earlier than Mr. C. supposes, 

 and anterior ev^n to the date when the hessian fly was first observed 

 in America. 



In 1795, as we are informed by Mr Marsham, in a paper read 

 before the Linnsan Society, London, and puhlisjlied in their Trans- 

 actions, vol. iii. p. 142, towards the end of July, Mr. Long had 

 observed an insect that threatened to do much mischief to the wheat 

 crops ; attacking one or more of the grains in an ear, and causing 

 the chaff of these grains to become yellow or ripe, whilst the re 

 mainder of the head was still green. Mr. Marsham, on opening thft 

 chaff of these grains, found an orange-colored powder, and in many 

 of them one or two very minute yellowish-while or deep yellow 

 larvffi, the grain itself appearing to be a little shrunk. Mr. Markwich 

 of Sussex also observed the same larvae in his wheat, the forepart 

 of August, but was confident they had done no injury to it. Thei 

 same larvas were also noticed by Mr. Kirby, this year, in Suffolk 



In a subsequent paper from Mr. Marsham ( Trans. Lin. Soc 

 vol. iv. p. 224), we are informed that Mr. Markwich, July 12, 1797 

 saw the flies themselves, at rest upon the heads of the wheat, an»l 

 also a few of the larvce within the flowers ; and that awhile later in 

 the season the fly appeared reduced in numbers, whilst the larvj 

 had become much more abundant. From heads of the wheat ei 

 closed in a flowerpot, he reared the fly, and also its parasite ; th 

 fly thus obtained having " spotted wings," a fact which we sha 

 revert to hereafter. 



Following this account is an excellent article (p. 230) by the Re 

 William Kirby, who has since become so well known by his varioi 

 writings upon entomology. Mr. Kirby here gives a scientific descrif 

 tion of the wheat-fly, bestowing upon it the specific name tritici, b 

 which it has been definitely distinguished by all subsequent write: 

 and correctly referring it to the genus Trpula of Linn^us, a gen 

 which, in consequence of the vast number of species afterwardBtiii 

 discovered to be comprised under it, naturalists have since found ^u 

 necessary to subdivide ; and the species in question at this day fali 

 within that group to which the name Cecidomyia was given by L;| 

 treille, an arrangement concurred in by Mr. Kirby himself in k 

 communication in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. 

 p. 227 ; and which I note thus particularly, as by most writers i 



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