538 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 
species is published by Mr. Curtis in his paper on insects affecting 
the corn crops, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
vol. vi, p. 499; and figures of the insect and its dissected parts, 
in the several stages of its growth, from Mr. Haliday’s manu¬ 
scripts, are given in the list ot Homopterous insects in the British 
Museum, part iv, plates vi, vii and viii. In the year 1805, one- 
third of the wheat crop in the province of Piedmont is said to 
have been destroyed by this seemingly insignificant little insect. 
Mr. Kirby says it is by far the most numerous of any insect upon 
the wheat in England; he does not think he ever examined an 
ear of wheat without meeting with it. He says it takes its station 
in the longitudinal furrow of the seed, in the bottom of which 
it seems to fix its beak, and probably sucks the milky juice which 
swells the grain. Thus by depriving the kernel of part, and in 
some cases perhaps the whole of its moisture, it causes it to shrink 
up and become what the farmers call “ pungled.” According to 
Vassali Eandi, it also gnaws the young stalks just above the 
knots, causing the ear to become abortive in consequence of these 
wounds. It is late sown wheat which is reported to be chiefly 
injured by this insect; and early sowing is the only remedy 
which I find spoken of by those who have written upon it. 
Our American species of this order of insects are probably as 
numerous as those of Europe, but none of them have been ex¬ 
amined and described, except one which occurs in small hollows 
gnawed in young apples, of which some account was given in 
my last report. I have repeatedly noticed different kinds of 
these insects upon growing wheat in the State of New-York, but 
not in such numbers that I supposed they were doing any ap¬ 
preciable injury to the crop. One of these species is very simi¬ 
lar to the PIdceot/trips Stalices, Haliday, which in Europe occurs 
in myriads upon the flowers of the Thrift (Statice Jhraeria Lin.) 
That which I have met with most common, upon wheat in my 
own vicinity is the Tliree-banded Thrips, hereafter described. 
Dr. Harris has also seen the larva of a Thrips (Treatise, p. 205) 
which he supposes to be the T. cerealium. He merely states 
that it was orange-colored; and as the larva of T. cerealium has 
a black or dusky head and two spots of the same color oh the 
fore part of the thorax, and its antenna; and legs have alternate 
