572 DIPTERA. 



on the young plants, and long before the grain is ripe ; 

 for many persons have witnessed and testified to this fact. 

 In the New England States, winter wheat, as it is called, is 

 usually sown about the first of September. Towards the end 

 of this month, and in October, when the grain has sprouted, 

 and begins to show a leaf or two, the flies appear in the 

 fields, and, having paired, begin to lay their eggs, in which 

 business they are occupied for several weeks. 



The following interesting account of the manner in which 

 this is done was written by Mr. Edward Tilghman, of 

 Queen Ann County, Maryland, and was published in the 

 eighth volume of " The Cultivator," in May, 1841. " By 

 the second week of October, the first-sown wheat being 

 well up, and having generally put forth its second and 

 third blades, I resorted to my field in a fine warm fore- 

 noon, to endeavor to satisfy myself, by ocular demonstra- 

 tion, whether the fly did deposit the egg on the blades of 

 the growing plant. Selecting a favorable spot to make 

 my observation, I placed myself in a reclining position in 

 a furrow, and had been on the watch but a minute or 

 two before I discovered a number of small black flies 

 alighting and sitting on the wheat plants around me, and 

 presently one settled on the ridged surface of a blade of 

 a plant completely within my reach and distinct observa- 

 tion. She immediately began depositing her eggs in the 

 longitudinal cavity between the little ridges of the blade. 

 I could distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind of tube 

 or sting. After she had deposited eight or ten eggs, I 

 easily caught her upon the blade, and wrapped her up in 

 a piece of paper. I then proceeded to take up the plant, 

 with as much as I conveniently could of the circumjacent 

 earth, and wrapped it all securely in a piece of paper. 

 After that I continued my observations on the flies, caught 

 several similarly occupied, and could see the eggs uniformly 

 placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades of the 

 wheat ; their appearance being that of minute reddish 



