affecting the Corn-Crops. 
137 
Norfolk and Suffolk, and also in the Isle of Wight ; the males I 
have met with at Darent and Dover early in June ; and, at the end 
of July, both sexes have been abundant in the same localities, and 
also in Battersea Fields, on umbellate flowers. I may here ob- 
serve, that there are ten or twelve British species of the interest- 
ing genus Cephns ;* and as I find one of them, named C. tabidus, 
in company with C. pygmmis, it is not improbable that their eco- 
nomy may be similar. I find that Latreille suspected the larvae 
fed on the interior of plants, which he supposed might prove to be 
the various species of grasses ;t and Messrs. Kirby and Spence 
say, " that upon barley particularly you will meet with the species 
of Latreille's genus Cephus.' 'l 
Cecidomyia destructor, Say — the American Wheat-midge. 
If Kollar be correct, there can no longer be any doubt that the 
" Hessian fly " has been detected in Europe. It does not, how- 
ever, appear to be known in France ; and it is now half a century 
since its supposed introduction into this country caused serious 
apprehensions amongst the people, and alarmed the agriculturists 
of England. § As it is intimately connected with a species which 
we shall next have to discuss, it may not be unadvisable to give a 
sketch of its historj'. 
The Americans entertain an idea that this fly was first intro- 
duced into their country in straw which accompanied the Hessian 
troops ; whence they have given it the appellation of " Hessian 
fly." It has been occasionally a dreadful scourge in North Ame- 
rica, for the larvae have committed such ravages on the wheat- 
crops as to cause even famine in the land. It was not until the 
autumn of 1833 that this destructive insect, or a species closely 
allied to it, was observed in Hungary; whether, from its previous 
rarity, it had been overlooked, or had not found its way into the 
Austrian dominions, is not known. Kollar|| states that it ap- 
pears, from a report transmitted to the Archduke Charles, that in 
the beginning of June the ears of wheat were observed to droop 
and the straw to bend, on his estates at Altenburgh, although the 
crop was previously in fine condition: in a few days, patches on 
the poorest soil in different parts became entangled, as if matted 
together by heavy rains or high winds, which were supposed at first 
* Curtis's Brit. Ent., fol. 301 ; Guide, Genus 476. 
■I- Hist. Nat., vol. xiii. p. 138. 
% Introduction to Entomology, vol. iv. p. 503. 
§ Mr. Markwick ascertained that the insect which caused such a sensa- 
tion during the period of scarcity was a Cldorops, described in Ihe Royal 
Agr. .Tourn., vol. v. p. 484. 
II Naturgeschichte der Schaedlichen Insecten, p. 130; and Kollai's Trea- 
tise on Insects, p. 119. 
