250 Forty-second Report on tee State Museum. [108] 



vergens Guer., which has, doubtless, rendered excellent service in the 

 destruction of the lice. A single one of these larvae upon a head of 

 wheat should, from its well-known voracity and remarkable appetite, 

 entirely free it in a short time from aphis presence." 



Different Names of the Insect. 



Several names have been given to this insect, as may be seen in the 

 partial bibliography given of it, since it was first brought to scientific 

 notice, about a hundred years ago. It is the Aphis avence of Fabricius, 

 Schrank, Walker and others of Europe ; of Fitch, Thomas and most of 

 our writers in the United States. Mr. Buckton, in his Monograph of 

 British Aphides, vol. 1, 1876, designates it as Aphis granaria, adopting 

 the name given it by Mr. Kirby in 1798, in a paper read before the 

 Linnean Society, on the ground that Fabricius gave no description 

 of his Aphis avence. In this he seems to have accepted without exami- 

 nation, the statement made by Curtis in his Farm Insects, viz., " as 

 Fabricius has given no description of his Aphis avence, which is possi- 

 bly the same species [with Kirby's], Mr. Kirby was constrained in 

 describing it, to designate it by a new name." Both these gentlemen 

 have very strangely, as was some time ago pointed out by Dr. Fitch, 

 overlooked the description of Fabricius. In the earlier Fabrician 

 writings — Sy sterna Entomologies in 1775, Species Insectorum in 1781, 

 and in Mantissa Insectorum in 1787, the species appears only by name, 

 but in the Entomologia Systematica in 1794, it was sufficiently described 

 to indicate beyond doubt the insect named; and that there need be no 

 excuse for longer continuing the name of granaria, the description 

 contained therein is herewith given : 



Avenae. 22, A. Avenae sativae. 



Habitat in Avena sativa. 



Caput obscure testaceum antennis nigris. Thorax testaceus, 

 antice viridis. Abdomen viride lituris marginalibus, nigris. 

 Corniculi cylindrici, nigri. Anus terminatur stylo parvo, albo. 

 Pedes nigri femoribus basi albis. 



That Kirby's name, published four years later, may be seen to 

 have no claim to priority or adoption for any reason whatever, we 

 quote from the Transactions of the Linnean Society, for 1798: 



A. granaria, viridis, cauda biseta, setis geniculisque pedum nigris. 



Aphis avense. Fab. Sp. Ins., ii, p. 386, N. 17. 



Gmel., i, pt. iv, p. 2206. 



Caput flavidum uti antennarum articulus primus. Oculi nigri. 

 Abdomen obovatum cauda aculeata. Pedes livida, tarsis genicu- 

 lisque nigris. 



