343 
No. 150.] 
Chapman says the deposit is made from the latter end of August 
till the 20th of September, and most other accounts coincide with 
this, though some extend the time into October. On the 8th of Oc¬ 
tober the fly was seen ovipositing in eastern Pennsylvania, in IS 19, 
and it had wholly disappeared on the 11th. ( Amer. Farmer , ii. 
180). The deposit is doubtless made later, at the south, than in 
this vicinity. Mr. Tilghman’s description of this process (Cultiva¬ 
tor, viii. 82,) will convey so much more distinct a view to the gene¬ 
ral reader, than any other that has ever been published that we here 
insert it. He says, “By the second week of October, the first sown 
wheat being well up, and having generally put forth its second and 
third blades, I resorted to my field to endeavor to satisfy myself by 
ocular demonstration, if I could do so, whether the fly did deposit 
the egg on the blades of the growing plant. Selecting what I 
deemed to be a favorable spot to make my observation, 1 placed 
myself in position, by reclining in a furrow between two wheat 
lands. It was a fine, warm, calm forenoon; and I had been on the 
watch but a minute or two, before I discovered a number of small 
black flies, alighting and setting on the wheat plants around me; 
and so strong seemed to be their predilection for the wheat, that I 
did not observe a single fly to settle on any grass, or any thing 
within my view, but the wheat. I could distinctly see their bodies 
in motion when settled on the leaves or blades of the wheat, and 
presently one alighted and settled on the ridged surface of a blade 
completely within my reach and distinct observation. She imme¬ 
diately commenced disburthening her apparently well stored abdo¬ 
men, by depositing her eggs in the longitudinal cavity between the 
little ridges of the blade. I could distinctly see the eggs ejected 
from a kind of tube or sting, or by the elongation of the body ; the 
action of the insect in making the deposit, being similar to that of 
the wasp in stinging. After she had deposited, as I supposed, some 
eight or ten eggs, I easily caught her, upon the blade, between my 
finger and thumb. After that, I continued my observations on 
the flies, caught several similarly occupied, and could see the eggs 
uniformly placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades of the 
wheat; their appearance being that of minute reddish specks.” 
