THE CHALCIDIANS. 551 



part of the Chalcidians, it may seem singular that any 

 doubt should exist in regard to others of them. There 

 are, however, some kinds wliich have been thought to pro- 

 duce galls themselves, instead of being the parasites of 

 gall-insects ; certain species -wearing indeed the form of a 

 Chalcidian, but appearing to have the habits of a Cynips. 

 These species belong to the genus Earytoma, which, though 

 agreeing in structure with the Chalcidians, Professor Nees 

 von Esenbeck was inclined to place among the CYNiPiDiE, 

 because he took them to be gall-makers. Mr. Westwood* 

 controverts this opinion; and Dr. Ratzeburgf considers it 

 as founded upon error. It may nevertheless be correct, if 

 there be no mistake in the result of observations made 

 upon the insects, called barley-straw insects and joint- 

 worms, that produce gall-like swellings upon the stems of 

 barley and of wheat in this country. 



In the years 1829 and 1830 several communications were 

 published in the eighth volume of Fessenden's " New Eng- 

 land Farmer," J respecting a disease of barley-straw, pro- 

 duced by the punctures of insects. The first account of 

 this disease that has fallen under my notice is contained 

 in an extract from a letter, dated August 16th, 1829, from 

 the Honorable John Merrill, of Newburyport, to Mr. Fes- 

 senden; wherein it is stated, that the barley, in the neigh- 

 borhood of Newburyport, yielded only a very small crop ; 

 on some farms, not much more than the seed sown. Most 

 of the stalks were found to have a number of small worms 

 within them, near to the second joint, and had become 

 hardened in the part attacked, from the interruption of the 

 circulation of the sap. During several years previous to 

 this date, the barley crops, in various parts of Essex and 

 Middlesex Counties, were more or less injured in the same 

 way; and in some places the cultivation of this grain was 



* Modern Classification of Insects, Vol. II. p. 161, note. 



t Die Ichneumonen der Forstinsecten, I. 172. 



t Pages 4.3, 138, 217, 299, 330, and 402. Also Vol. IX. p. 2, and Vol. X. p. 11. 



