172 Annual Report for 1889 of the Consulting Entomologist. 
found in the screenings, little of it had been observed on the corn 
before harvest, and little harm had apparently been caused to the 
crops. At Daleally, near Errol (where the attack was first observed 
in Scotland), I am informed, on special inquiry, that it was not found 
at all. 
The reports of this, as well as of last year, give good hope that 
our wheats will not suffer to a serious extent ; but for the sake of 
barley (which is much more liable to injury), it is very important 
that the plain common-sense measures of prevention previously men- 
tioned should be carried out. 
Saddle Fly, Cecidomyia (? Diplosis) equestris, Wagner. 
Another form of cecidomyideous attack (that is, attack of red 
maggots very much resembling in shape and colour those of a 
common wheat midge), but which, I believe, 
has not hitherto been recorded in Britain, 
has occurred to a slight extent on barley 
straw near Alford, in Lincolnshire. At 
present I have not been able to secure the 
fly, but as far as I can make out the insect 
will turn out to be the Cecidomym (Dip- 
losis) equestris of AVagner, commonly known 
as the saddle fly, from the saddle-like form 
of the injury which the maggots cause to 
the infested straw. In the specimens sent 
me, the little saddle-like spots, each formed 
of a slight hollow with a raised border of 
diseased growth around it, and set either 
singly or in a succession of four or five 
saddles along the straw, were very notice- 
able, and unlike any other attack which I 
have seen. 
This attack may very likely have come 
from a good deal of thin foreign barley, 
full of dirt, weed, seeds, and other rubbish, 
which was sold at Alford market ; I will 
endeavour, if injury reappears, to get com- 
plete observations. 
Shot Borer Beetle, Xyhborus dispar, Fab. 
Fi f • VT£ 8W !L*$f^ <d 'i An attack of serious importance to fruit 
tacked by sacUuejw " red , . , r . , 
maoaots" growers occurred in stems of young plum 
trees at Toddington. The cause of the 
mischief is a small blackish beetle, the Xyleboriis dispar, Fab., so 
named from tlie disparity in size and shape between the male and the 
female. The female is somewhat cylindrical, with a little lump on 
the forepart of the body, and is little more than a line long ; but the 
male is only about two-thirds of that length, and rounded in outline. 
(See Fig. 2.) 
The females bore into the hard wood of the stems of young 
