232 The Insects of the Past Year and Progress in Insect Studies. 



brain, and often causing the death of the animal within twenty-four 



As soon as scientific study could be given the insect, it was found 

 that the harm resulting from the presence of the fly was not so serious 

 as to be the occasion of alarm. No deaths had resulted from it, and 

 the cows were not dehorned by it. In the thinner-skinned and more 

 sensitive animals, as the Jerseys, the bites and bloodsucking and 

 resulting inflammation might, perhaps, through rubbing, produce 

 sore and bleeding spots. The amount of harm caused by the fly 

 seems to be narrowing down to a falling off in the amount of milk 

 and cream of infested herds, reported by some at one-third, and in 

 one instance, in New Jersey, at one-half of the usual production. 



The life-history of the fly has been studied out, and published, by 

 the division of entomology at Washington,* and by Prof. J. B. Smith, 

 of the State Agricultural College of New Jersey. Its- eggs are 

 deposited in the fresh droppings of the cattle. The larvae, feeding 

 and maturing therein, may be destroyed by a daily sprinkling of the 

 droppings with lime, or better still, as not liberating the ammonia, 

 with plaster. Protection from the bite may be had by the application 

 of oils to the body of the animals. 



[For a more extended notice of this insect, see Fifth Report on the 

 Insects of New York, 1889, pp. 78-85; pp. 220-227 of 42d St. Mus. 

 Rept] 



Another introduced insect pest, long known in Europe for its 

 injuries to wheat and rye, has been brought to notice the past year. 

 It bears abroad the common name of the " corn saw-fly/' but this may 

 not be used by us as it would be misleading, since with us "corn" is 

 applied only to the maize or Indian corn, while in England it is used 

 collectively for all of the cereals or farinaceous food-plants which 

 grow in ears, viz., wheat, rye, barley, oats and maize. Its scientific 

 name is Cephus pygmeus (Linn.). 



It was discovered two years ago (in 1887) infesting wheat on the 

 Cornell University farm, at Ithaca, where it has already become 

 extremely abundant, but strangely, has not been observed, so far as 

 known, elsewhere. Professor Comstock has made it the subject of a 

 Special Bulletin — No. XI, November, 1889 — in which a full account 

 of the insect is given. The larva, hatching from the egg deposited 

 in a slit made by the ovipositor of the female fly, usually in the upper 

 portion of the stalk, four to five days before its heading out, burrows 



