324 Annual Report for 1908 of the Zoologist. 
attention to the group since, though some Continental 
entomologists have done excellent work upon it. It is quite 
possible that our ideas with regard to some of the English 
species require revision. According to Kirchner the species 
attacking the pea is Thrips cerealium. This ought, of course, 
to be a species attacking corn, and it has often been identified 
— probably quite correctly — as the cause of injury to wheat in 
this country. Uzel, however, states that he has never found it 
on corn in Bohemia, where the common corn thrips is 
T. secalina. About fifty British species have been described, 
all very small insects, less than a twelfth of an inch in length. 
Most of them are chiefly in evidence in hot-houses, but among 
outdoor crops three of them attack wheat, potatoes, and onions 
respectively. Some species are wingless ; in others the females 
only possess wings, while both sexes of yet other species can 
fly. The wings are very characteristic ; they are four in 
number, and are extremely narrow, and fringed by long hairs. 
The legs are short, and end in small bladders ; indeed, the 
insect is known in Germany as the “ bladder -foot.” The 
metamorphosis is very slight, and the larvae are much like the 
adults, except in colour and in the absence of wings. Some 
years ago there was a gi’eat deal of controversy as to whether 
these insects were really vegetable feeders at all, for apparently 
well authenticated instances were adduced of species feeding 
upon scale insects, and upon midge larvae. It is now quite 
certain, however, that the carniverous species, if any, are 
exceptional, and that most of them feed upon and often 
greatly injure plants. 
Observations during the past season . — When the disease 
was first noticed, in July, all the peas were well advanced in 
growth, and it was unfortunately impossible to note the 
commencement of the attack. The diseased appearance of the 
pods above described was well established, and the larvae were 
readily found. They were less than one-sixteenth of an inch 
long, orange-yellow in colour except for the last two segments, 
which were black. The eyes, especially in the younger larva3, 
were of a conspicuous red hue. They were fairly active, and 
were often seen wandering over the pod, but when feeding 
they wei'e necessarily stationary, with their piercing jaws 
plunged into the vegetable tissue. 
Nothing was to be learnt concerning the course of the 
disease from the older pods, so the flowers in all stages of 
development were carefully examined. Very few of the adult 
insects were seen at all, and still fewer were caught, for they 
were very active and flew away immediately on discovery. 
Such as were seen were in the flowers, and were nearly black 
in colour. 
