STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
769 
MIDGE. ELY. WHY DECIDED TO BB THIS SPECIES. 
already stated, I was desired to contribute entomological articles 
to a scientific journal. J selected this as a subject which of all 
others would most interest the public and stood in the most need 
of any elucidation I Height be able to give it. 
Upon considering the facts, that in this country from the time 
of its first settlement wheat had been the leading staple crop and 
was in universal cultivation with no malady like this ever known 
to molest it until this creature suddenly appeared at a particular 
point aiid from thence gradually spread itself in all directions, I 
could not doubt that it had been newly introduced here from 
some foreign country. And Britain as being the country with 
which we had the largest commercial intercourse was evidently 
the source from whence it would be most apt to be brought. 
Therefore, if there was any depredator on the wheat similar to 
this in Great Britain, there would obviously be a strong proba¬ 
bility that this was the same thing. And thereupon instituting 
a most careful comparison of our insect and its habits with all 
the particulars given in Mr. Kirby’s original papers on the C. 
Tritici , and what I could glean in addition thereto from other 
sources, I became sufficiently assured that it was the same species. 
And further, when I came to know that it was common for the 
larvm of this insect to lie quiescent in the ears of ripened wheat 
for several months without losing their vitality, and that an ear 
of wheat therefore could not be brought from England to this 
country without being liable to bring a dozen of these larvm 
lurking in it, I saw that its arrival here was inevitable; and my 
only surprise was that it had not reached this country long before 
it did. Finally, my drawings of this insect had been completed 
and sent to the engraver and my descriptions had been written, 
whereby all the minute particulars of the structure of its differ¬ 
ent parts were perfectly fresh and distinct in my mind, when Mr. 
Curtis’s article and the invaluable illustrations accompanying it 
came into my hands. The peculiar form of the joints of the an- 
tenrne and several other details not stated in Mr. Kirby’s descrip¬ 
tion but which I had carefully noticed in our insect, were so ex¬ 
actly represented by Mr. Curtis that assurance now became 
doubly sure. Everything thus concurred to convince and render 
me positive that our insect was identical with the Cecidoinyia 
lritici of England. And it is seldom that a decision'h^s been 
[Ag. Tuans.] 49 
