26 



Ottawa district, and had found, first, that the Hessian Fly, the Wheat-stem Mag- 

 got and Oscinis were all found at the same time and in the same plant, and 

 further, that, speaking generally, they passed through their stages contempor- 

 aneously. Of the three the last had proved much the most destructive. From 

 root shoots of wheat sown on the 14th of April he had bred Hessian Fly and 

 Oscinis at the end of June, and a month later Meromyza had appeared. He had 

 also noticed in some fields at Ottawa that a large quantity of spring wheat was 

 attacked by Hessian fly in the ground shoots or stools in the same manner as fall 

 wheat is attacked in the autumn. It was frequently the case that on plants which 

 had made from fifteen to twenty stools but one would be left, all the others having 

 been destroyed by the insects. He had procured adult Hessian Flies at Ottawa dur- 

 ing this season in the beginning of May, at the end of June, and in August, and they 

 would probably appear again in September. He had not been able to find the 

 Hessian Fly breeding in any of the grasses, and would like to know if others had 

 done so. Meromyza and the Oscinis had been most troublesome pests in the ex- 

 perimental grass patches at Ottawa, some grasses being almost exterminated by 

 them. It was remarkable that the spring appearance of Meromyza had been so 

 enormous as to have caused fear of a serious destruction of the wheat crop. As 

 a matter of fact, however, there had been less injury, both to small grains and 

 grasses, than for many years previously. This diminution he could only explain 

 by the supposition that the eggs had been destroyed by some predaceous insect. 

 The eggs must have been laid in large numbers, but there was very little evidence 

 of the presence of the larvae, either in the standing wheat or barley, or in the 

 root-shoots of barley. The Oscinis he had been unable to identify ; but, through 

 the kindness of Mr. J ohn Marten, of Illinois, he had learnt of some work which 

 had been done by Prof. Garman in Kentucky, upon what was probably the same 

 species. This, Mr. Marten said, had been doubtfully identified by Dr. Williston 

 as 0. variabilis. 



.W^- Prof. Garman stated that he had studied what appeared to be the same 

 species, and had prepared an article for publication. He also gave some notes 

 upon the life history and anatomy of the insect. 



Prof. Osborn had taken at Ames, Iowa, numerous specimens of Oscinis, one 

 of which closely resembled that exhibited by Mr. Fletcher. 



Prof Alwood had studied in Ohio an Oscinis infesting oats, and had pub- 

 lished his results in Bulletin 13, Division of Entomology. He had found the 

 eggs, from two to eleven ia. number, were forced beneath the sheath of the leaf, 

 and that just prior to pupation the larvae gnawed through the epidermis and the 

 pupa protruded so as to admit of the easy escape of the adult. 



Mr. Fletcher, referring again to Meromyza, stated that in many instances he 

 had found the eggs deposited in the field upon the upper surface of the leaf some 

 distance from the stem, and asked if others had observed this to be the case else- 

 where. 



Prof. Garman had found that the eggs were laid just above the sheath, or 

 sometimes pushed beneath it. 



Prof. Webster stated that the eggs of the Hessian Fly, had, in the spring of 

 the present year, throughout Southern and Central Indiana, been deposited near 

 the roots, the " flax-seeds " being found in that portion of the plant ; while in the 

 northern part of the State the case had evidently been difi'erent, as the " flax- 

 seeds " were there almost invariably located about the second joint. 



The Secretary read a paper by Mr. Edward L. Graef, of New York, upon 

 the American Silk Worm Moths or Spinners, in which a serious attack upon the 



