142 
Observations on the various Insects 
any of the pupae concealed in it ; but if they were there, they 
escaped my eye, from their minuteness : yet it seems not probable, 
nor analogous to the general proceedings of nature, that it should 
be indifferent to them whether thev go under ground or remain in 
the ear when they assume the pupa. That they are destroyed by 
any other insect than the Ichneumon I have no reason to believe, 
having never seen them attacked by^ axiy other; therefore it seems 
to me most probable that this little friend to man is the destroyer 
of by far the greatest part of them." 
These unsettled points have recently attracted the notice of Pro- 
fessor Henslow, but he has failed as well as myself in obtaining 
satisfactory evidence towards settling these obscure traits in the 
economy of the Wheat-midge ; we must therefore rely upon the 
exertions of the intelligent farmer to supply the deficiencies. 
Mr. Kirby is of opinion as well as Mr. Alarkwick that the larvae 
" feed upon the pollen or dust of the antherae, for in those florets 
in which it resides the germen never swells, and the antherae are 
persisting (fig. 10, d, e) ; from which it seems evident that the 
impregnation of the germen is prevented, either by the insects 
using some means, perhaps a kind of gluten, to prevent the pollen 
from bursting from the antherae, or vice versa, by doing something 
to the stigma to prevent the fertilization of the germen. The 
pollen of three antherae is a store which will maintain sometimes 
thirtv of these creatures from the time that the wheat is in blossom 
unlil it is nearly if not altogether ripe. I could never discover 
that the grain was injured in any other way by this insect, but it 
invariably produces the inanition of it in the floret which it inha- 
bits. It may always be detected by the discoloured appearance of 
the base of the corolla, which is its usual station." 
In February, 1799, a letter from Mr. Kirby was read at a 
meeting of the Linnaean Society,* which is so full of interest 
that I shall be excused for drawing largely upon it in the present 
instance. " It chanced that on the 3rd of June last (1798) I had 
occasion to pass through a field planted with wheat, in the evening, 
and to my great surprise and satisfaction my attention was imme- 
diately arrested by an innumerable host of our Tipulce flying abput 
in all directions (fig. 7) ; and from that day to the latter end of 
the same month these insects were always to be met with in the 
wheat-fields. They were seldom to be seen much before seven 
o'clock ; at eight the field appeared to swarm with them, at which 
hour the}'^ were all busily engaged in laying their eggs ; and about 
nine they generally disappeared ; they were indeed so extremely 
numerous, that if each of them were to lay its eggs in a different 
floret, and those eggs were permitted to produce larvfe, I think. 
• Trans. Linn. See, vol. v. p. 97. 
