ICHNEUMONS OF THE MIDGE. 131 



creatures. A general view of their operations 

 will be quite enough. The most common of 

 them is a small fly, like all the rest, of the 

 hymenopterous order. It was originally called 

 ichneumon tipulcBy but now goes by the name 

 of the platygaster tipulce. A most accurate 

 description, and a drawing of this fly, may be 

 found in the interesting papers of Mr. Curtis, 

 adverted to in a previous part of this volume. 

 The male is black, and the female is of a pitchy 

 colour. Both shine very much ; the former 

 is difficult to meet with. Superficial ob- 

 servers, who have noticed the larvse of the 

 wheat-midge in the ears, have mistaken the 

 ichneumon, which they have observed amongst 

 them, for the parent of these larvae, and have 

 consequently condemned it as the origin of the 

 very ills it is destined to diminish. This 

 affords another instance of the folly of hasty 

 conclusions, and of the false reasoning relative 

 to the inferences people deduce without accu- 

 rate investigation, when they merely see two 

 things together. Just in the same way some 

 farmers have concluded that the little ichneu- 

 mon flies we are now noticing must lay the eggs 

 producing the larvae of the midge, because they 

 have themselves seen them amongst the com 



