STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
765 
midge, flt. how recognized. 
years the midge had so nearly vanished that our farmers thought 
they might sow wheat without fears of its injury by this enemy. 
And then came the disastrous year of 1854. I find I have made 
a note of this year as having been one of the driest ever known 
through the Northern States. But did this drouth commence 
before July? Records which I have not at hand will show. 
With the views I have confidently formed, the last of June this 
year could not have been dry. (P. S. I find in the Cultivator of 
October 1854 (p. 307) a record of S. B. Buckley, showing that at 
Dryden, N. Y. this year April was a wet month, seven inches and 
80.tOOths of rain falling; in May 2.82; June 3.58 ; July about 
one inch; on the second of August half an inch, and none after¬ 
wards that season. This corroborates the opinion I had formed.) 
I next come to consider the marks by which we recognizo an 
insect to be the wheat midge. What are the characters by which 
we can distinguish this fly from all others ? To answer this 
question would embarrass Linnaeus himself. In the present state 
of our knowledge we are quite unable to erect such landmarks 
and draw such lines as will clearly include all the flies ot this 
species and exclude all others. We doubt whether it will ever 
be possible to do this. 
I may say in general terms, that, as I now no more meet with 
individuals having spotted wings, I regard all the bright yellow 
midges which occur in our wheat fields during the latter half of 
June as being this species. And this is the most simple and clear 
definition of the wheat midge I am able to give. But in the 
swarms of this insect which occur upon wheat, particular indivi¬ 
duals will be found varying so far from the others, that, were they 
captured anywhere else, we could scarcely deem them to be this 
species. Thus dwarfs are met with, not more than half the 
usual size. Their color varies, many being paler, of a lemon 
rather than an orange yellow, or as pale even as cream color. 
The wings, generally perfectly clear and glassy, are in some indi¬ 
viduals perceptibly smoky. And when we come to minutely ex¬ 
amine particular organs and members, the antennas tor instance, 
or the veins of the wings, we so frequently meet with portions of 
them which are abortive or atrophied and so abnormal, that we 
despair of finding in parts subject to such defects, any characters 
which can serve to rigidly distinguish this from other species. 
How much then is our embarrassment increased when we take in 
