342 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



But little progress in the study of this species seems to have been 

 made in the last hundred years. Besides the Hungarian insect and 

 that found in the Southwestern United States, we may mention that a 

 species of this genus is very abundant in Lapland; another does much 

 damage in Brazil. The " black fly " of the north woods we have already 

 mentioned ; and, lastly, Mik has recently given an account of Simulium 

 vexans, an insect of similar habits found in Australia. 



EARLY STAGES OF EUROPEAN SPECIES. 



Schonbauer first discovered that the early stages of the Columbacz 

 midge — egg, larva, and pupa — were passed in the water, and only left 

 that element to transform to the perfect insect. Some time afterwards 

 Verdat* and Fries t published the transformations of Simulium sericeum. 

 The larvae of tbis species live under the surface of the water, on the 

 stems of water-plants of the genera Phellandrium and Sium.% The 

 larvae are slender, cylindrical, and furnished near the mouth with two 

 singular flabelliform appendages. The pupae have, on each side of the 

 fipnt of the thorax, eight long filiform appendages arising in pairs. 

 The posterior part of the body is inclosed in a semi-oval cocoon at- 

 tached to the plants. The fly issues below the surface of the water, and 

 rises to the top protected by a fine silky covering of hairs. 



EARLY STAGES OF AMERICAN SPECIES. 



The early stages of several of the American species have been studied. 

 In the American Entomologist (Vol. II, p. 227, June, 1870), under the 

 heading "The Death-web of Young Trout," we described the larva and 

 pupa, with figures, of a species afterwards described by us as Simulium 

 piscicidium (ibid, p. 367). These larvae were said by Seth Green to live 

 attached to stones in swift running water and to spin a silken thread 

 in which young fish became entangled and killed. This statement 

 created much excitement among fish culturists at the time, and really 

 seemed very plausible. It was contradicted, however, by Sara J. Mc- 

 Bride, of Mumford, N. Y., in an article published in the same volume, 

 pp. 365-307 (December, 1870), and also by Fied. Mather, of Honeoye 

 Falls, N. Y., in private correspondence with us. Mrs. McBride fnand 

 that the perfect flies issued about the 1st of April, and the 1st of June 

 thereafter the larvae were found in the streams in great numb, rs — as 

 a general rule attached to water-plants 3 or 4 inches below the surface 

 of the water. Some were also attached to stones at the bottom. The 

 majority were fastened to. green, decaying watercress, and these were 

 green in color, while others which held to dead forest leaves of the pre- 

 vious year's growth, which had become entangled with the cress, were 

 brown. From this fact she justly argued that they fed on decaying 

 vegetation. There was a succession of broods throughout the season, 

 the development of a single brood occupying about two months. The 

 flies issuing in midsummer were smaller than those developed in the 

 spring and fall, although no difference in the size of larvae and pupae 

 was perceptible. 



In the same volume (pp. 220-231) Osten-Sacken gives an account of 

 an undetermined species found attached to rocks and plants in swift- 



* Verdat, G.-J. — Memoire pour servir it l'histoire <les Simula's, <;onre d'inRftctes '"le 

 l'orrtre defl Pipteres, etc. Xaturwiss. Auzeig. d. allg. sclnveiz. GeselLsch., 1822, v. 5, 

 No. 9, pp. 05-70. 



t Fries, B. F. — Observationes entomologies. Resp. Liljrvalk, Pars I. (Simulia.) 

 Stockholm, ls-24. 8 C . Reprint, Thon's Archiv, 1830, v. II, 2. p. 09-7:i. 



{Several species of Sium are found in tkis country, aud are kuown as "Water 

 parsnips." 



