592 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
Preparatory to passing these specimens into the hands of the audience, 
I may briefly state the contents of each box. I have selected for exhibi¬ 
tion and for a few remarks on this occasion, nine of the most pernicious 
and destructive insects which we have in our country. Five of these are 
depredators upon the wheat crop, and to some extent upon our other grain 
crops in districts where they do not find all the wheat they require for their 
accommodation. These five insects are, 
The wheat midge, the grain weevil, the Hessian fly, the joint-worm, and 
the cliinch-bug. 
All these are very small insects. Yet, notwithstanding their diminutive 
size, and their seeming insignificance, some of them have done and are 
doing a greater amount of damage by far, than any of our other noxious 
insects. After looking at these pigmies, I presume it will be a relief to 
your eyes to be presented with something larger, and more cognizable to 
the senses ; and I have therefore selected four of the most important 
depredators upon our fruit trees, namely, 
The moth which produces the caterpillars upon our apple and cherry trees, 
The apple tree borer, the peach tree borer, and the curculio or plum weevil. 
Many persons in the audience, I doubt not, will inspect these specimens 
more intelligently, and will recollect their appearance much better, if, as I 
hand them out, I state the contents of each box, and say a few words ex¬ 
plaining the particular habits of each of these insects. 
First, then, the Wheat midge .—This is the insect which, of all others, 
is doing us the most damage at the present time — causing a loss to the far¬ 
mers of our State, amounting to millions of dollars annually. As already 
stated, the midge is spread everywhere through the wheat-growing dis¬ 
tricts of the Northern and Middle States, and also through Canada and 
Ohio. This insect is an exceedingly small, bright yellow fly, not a quarter 
the size of the common mosquito. And though there are countless myri¬ 
ads of these flies in every part of our State, very few persons have ever 
seen this fly, knowing it to be the midge. 
It may add to the interest with which you will look upon one of the 
specimens in this box, to be informed, that I suppose you are there view¬ 
ing, what only two persons in the world have ever seen, before this eve¬ 
ning— the male of the wheat midge. We learn from Mr. Curtis, that this 
has never yet been found by any of the British entomologists, and only one 
person in Europe is known to have discovered it — Mcigcn, a German 
writer on insects, who has been dead many years. On coming to see what 
a mere atom this male fly is, you will be little surprised that collectors have 
so universally failed to detect it — for (if I may be allowed a Iliberuicism) 
on looking at it, you will find it’s so small you can’t see it. The specimen 
is so placed as to project from the point of a triangular piece of paper, to 
which it is glued ; and all that the sharpest eyes will be able to perceive, 
is an appearance like small fibres of gossamer adhering to the point of the 
paper. But if the light in any part of the room throws a shadow, this 
shadow, falling on the white paper under the specimen, will be much more 
visible, and more like an insect than the object itself is. And the magni- 
