STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
533 
black band towards their bases (as shown in the separate illustration of the leg, 
fio-. 5 a), and the middle ones having a narrower faint blackish one; the tips of the 
f° e t being also black. Bristle of the antenna; black. A slight transverse tawny 
yellow line above the base of each antenna;. The two veinlets of the wings are 
distant from each other thrice the length of the second or outer veinlet. 
Two of these flies were enclosed in a vial when captured. Adhering to one of 
them was a small bright red mite, which is parasitic upon these flics. This fly died 
in about three hours, the other remaining brisk and lively twelve hours afterwards, 
when it was removed for examination. 
The yellow-hipped Oscinis. 0. coxendix , is 0.07 in length to the tip of its ab¬ 
domen, and 0.10 to the end of its wings. It is black with a white face and buff 
yellow front shaded to blackish on the crown, where is a polished deep black semi¬ 
circular mark, its concave side facing backward. Its anterior hips are testaceous 
yellow. The veinlets arc less than twice the length of the second from each other. 
The thick-legged Oscinis, O. crassifemoris, is the same size with the last, 
and is black with a white head and the thorax with a gray reflection. The last 
joint of the antenna; with its bristle is black. The legs are pale yellow, the tips of 
the feet black. The veinlets are so near each other that they are almost united. 
In the female the abdomen is egg-shaped and polished, its apex drawn out into a 
long sharp-pointed ovipositor. The middle and anterior thighs are rather short 
and thick, the hind ones longer and cylindrical. 
The fly figured, plate 1, fig. 3, is a much larger species pertaining 
to another group. It occurs in abundance upon the heads of wheat 
the latter part of June. This is the species which was currently re¬ 
garded in the circle of my acquaintance as being the fly from which 
the little yellow maggots, the larva; of the wheat midge,proceeded, 
until I came to investigate this subject,and discovered in our coun¬ 
try the real culprit (Cecidomyia Tritici ) described by Mr. Kirby. 
As I have had occasion repeatedly to allude to this popular mis¬ 
take, and this fly has received no name, as I have been able to 
discover, by which it may be specified, I here present a name 
and description of it, and also of another common species closely 
related to it. I as yet know nothing of their habits, beyond the 
fact that they are both numerous, hovering over and alighting 
upon the heads of wheat at the time they are in flower. 
The deceiving wheat fly, Hijlemyia diceptiva , is a quarter of an inch in length 
to the tip of its wings. It is ash gray, with black legs, antennte and feelers. Ab¬ 
domen with a row of longditudinal brown-black spots forming an interupted stripe 
along its middle. Thorax in a particular reflection of the light showing a brown 
stripe anteriorly and on each side of it a brown spot. A tawny yellow spot upon 
the front, more conspicuous in the females, and passing into a black stripe upon 
the top of the head. 
The similar wheat fly, Hijmelyia similis, resembles the preceding, but is a 
size smaller, measuring 0.22 in length, and of a paler shade of ash gray, with the 
tawny yellow spot upon the front replaced by black, and is destitute of the brown 
•tripe and spots upon the thorax. 
