l88 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



fig. lo) hyaline, costa light brown. Halteres pale yellowish. Legs 

 light fuscous yellowish, tarsi lighter; claws slender, uniformly curved. 

 Genitalia (pi. 19, fig. i); dorsal plate deeply and triangularly incised, 

 the lobes divergent, tapering, broadly rounded; ventral plate broad 

 at base, deeply and roundly emarginate, the lobes well separated, 

 narrow, obtuse; style long, stout, broadly rounded. Type Cecid. 515. 



Itonida aphidivora Felt 

 1912 Felt, E. P. N. Y. Ent. Soc. Jour., 20:245-46 

 1 91 4 Econ. Ent. Jour., 7:458 



This midge was reared in some numbers from apple leaves infested 

 by the rosy aphis. Aphis malifoliae Fitch, at Nassau, N. Y. 



Itonida aprilis Felt 

 1912 Felt, E. P. N. Y. Ent. Soc. Jour., 20:247 



These midges are among the earl}^ appearing forms taken at 

 Albany, N. Y. 



Itonida tritici Felt 

 1912 Felt, E, P. Econ. Ent. Jour., 5:289 

 191 8 N. Y. Stale Mus. Bui. 200, p. 22 



This is not the Cecidomyia or Diplosis tritici Kirby, a 

 species described by several authors as having a long ovipositor and 

 a midge associated with serious losses to grain in Europe. The 

 type of Kirby 's species has been destroyed (Trans. Linn. Soc. 4 : 

 232, 1798). It is doubtful if the true Cecidomyia, presumably the 

 Contarinia tritici Kirby, occurs in the United States. 

 The specimens described under the above name are in the United 

 States National Museum collection at Washington, were labeled 

 Cecidomyia tritici Kirby and were presumed to be the 

 midge which caused so much loss to American wheat growers in 

 earlier years, since they were reared by Theodore Pergande 

 from typical wheat midge material. The economic status of 

 this species can not be determined at the present time, though 

 data at hand indicate that m.ost of the injury in American 

 wheat fields is probably due to the work of the European 

 Thecodiplosis mosellana Gehin, and if this be the 

 case it follows that the extensive American wheat midge litera- 

 ture relates to this species and not to the insect formerly supposed 

 to be the cause of the injury. It is to be expected that several 

 midges would occur in wheat heads. The writer has already 

 characterized three and others are known to occur in Europe. The 

 difficulty is to determine between comparatively rare and relatively 

 innocuous species and the one or more destructive forms. 



