261 
No. 105.] 
Kirby, Markwick and Long. Again it ceases to elicit attention, un¬ 
til a period but a little longer elapses, when, in 1828 and the follow¬ 
ing years, it forces itself once more and still more prominently into 
notice. All that I design, is to direct attention to this point : the 
facts are as yet too few and too vague to justify anything more than 
a suggestion. The observations of Mr. Kirby, reaching now over 
half a century, could probably shed some light upon this most inte¬ 
resting topic. 
As respects the extent of its range abroad , it has been noticed in 
most of the southern and eastern counties of England, from Cornwall 
to Norfolk, and also in Shropshire ; in Perthshire and the Lothians, 
and probably in other districts of Scotland ; and in the north of Ire¬ 
land. Whether it occurs upon the continent of Europe, we are not 
positively informed. It is not noticed by Macquart, either in his 
Diptera of the North of France, or his Natural History of Dipterous 
Insects (for a perusal of which I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. 
T. W. Harris of Harvard University ;) and we can scarcely believe 
that if it existed in his district, it could have been overlooked by so 
assiduous a naturalist. M. Herpin, however (as we are told by Mr. 
Curtis,) is of opinion that it is an inhabitant of France, and the state¬ 
ment which he makes strongly supports this opinion. He says, “ I 
have also found in ears of corn, at the time of flowering, many little 
yellow larva;, very lively, from two to three millimetres long, lodged 
between the chaff of the grain : these larvae nibble and destroy the 
generative organs of the plant, and the germen where they are found 
are sterile. These larva: appear to me to have a very great analogy 
with those which have been described in Linnsean Transactions, un¬ 
der tbe name of Tipula Tritici : it is probably a Cecidomyia.” M. 
Herpin placed several ears of diseased barley and wheat in bottles, 
and in these bottles a number of Cecidomyia flies were afterwards 
found. Meigen —a copy of whose noted work upon the Diptera of 
Europe I regret that I have been unable to meet with — as I learn 
from Mr. Curtis’s paper, gives descriptions and figures of the wheat- 
fly. Were his specimens collected in Germany, or received from 
England ? 
