218 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of an inch long, with a growth at the head and bottom, much 

 resembhng (in miniature) a niche in the wall of a cathedral. 

 The larvae were activelj' twisting about, evidently full-grown, for 

 in a few days they left the stalks and buried themselves in the 

 light soil from the field. 



Specimens were sent (by the owner of the field) to the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries for name and information how to 

 treat the pest which had attacked the wheat and barley. The 

 advisers of the Board informed the owner that " the wheat was 

 suffering from an attack of the Hessian Fly ! " 



As I had worked out the life-history of this destructive insect, 

 I felt fully justified in flatly contradicting this statement, and 

 some months after, when all the larvae had buried themselves 

 and so got beyond control, the advisers then informed the owner 

 that the larvae were those of Diplosis aurantiaca, " a dangerous 

 wheat pest" ; but, so far as I can ascertain, this was about all 

 that was done by the Board of Agriculture. 



I sent a photograph of the injured stalks to Dr. L. Howard, 

 the United States Entomologist and Head of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, Board of Agriculture ; but he was glad to say that 

 nothing of the kind had been seen in America, and that it was 

 quite new to him. 



1 kept my larvae in the soil until June of this year, when I 

 found several in very much the same condition as when I last 

 saw them. I asked Mr. Mainland to send me a good supply, 

 which he did on June 12th. Some of these I observed change to 

 pupae, which very much resembled the larvae in colour. Previous 

 to pupating, the larvae, by twisting and twirling, managed to 

 bury themselves and scoop out a small oval chamber, in which 

 they changed to puj^ae. Some of these I ruptured in digging up, 

 but in others observed the larval skin cast and the pupa evolved. 

 At first the legs were difficult to discern, as they scarcely pro- 

 jected beyond the body. In the course of a week the wings and 

 eyes began to darken, and the leg-sheaths were more distinct; 

 the abdomen, too, and the dark dorsal marks became visible, 

 until, just a month after pupating, I bred six of the female flies. 

 These, together with my original photograph of the injured 

 stalks, I forwarded to Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse, who placed them in 

 the hands of Mr. E. E. Austen, the Dipterist at the Natural 

 History Museum, who very kindly searched out the true name — 

 viz. Clinodiplosis equestris (of Wagner) — whose figure of the 

 injured stalk agreed in every respect with my photograph. It 

 appears that Wagner obtained his first specimens in 1865 and 

 1866 from Fulga, Cassel, Germany, but it has not been much 

 heard of since that time. 



Being anxious to learn all I could of this extraordinary 

 " pest," I determined to visit the infected field near Tenby. On 

 June 23rd Mr. and Miss Mainland visited the field, and observed 



