776 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
MIDGE. FLY. WIDTH OF ITS WINGS AND BODY. 
Curtis in my Essay, M. Amyot evidently supposes I had Mr. Cur¬ 
tis’s figure before me when my drawings were made, and that I 
therefore varied therefrom to represent our American insect more 
exactly than Mr. Curtis’s figure represented it. I may therefore 
state that my acquaintance with Mr. Curtis’s paper was limited 
to a perusal and notes taken from it in the city of Albany where 
it had been newly received when I was writing out my Essay for 
the press. My drawings were made when the flies were abroad 
among the wheat in June 1845, at which time the half volume 
containing Mr. Curtis’s article had not issued from the press in 
London, as appears from a notice in the Appendix, page ix. I 
had no pattern to aid me in this work except the rude figure ac¬ 
companying Mr. Kirby’s articles. It was probably to represent 
their voins distinctly that I somewhat exaggerated the width of 
the wings. Their true dimensions appear to be intermediate be¬ 
tween Mr. Curtis’s figure and mine. As nearly as I can ascertain, 
a wing placed between slips of glass to remove the wrinkles it 
acquires on drying, and laid upon a scale, measures .080 by .035. 
My figure reduced to the size of nature would indicate it as .080 
by .040 ; Mr. Curtis’s .080 b) r .030. And as to the shape of the 
wings, whilst I notice that their inner margin is more curved and 
rounded in the figure than it appears in nature, 1 do not so clearly 
perceive that the ends are so. 
Upon the other point mentioned, the thickness given to the 
body in this figure, I may remark that we all know how greatly 
the abdomen varies as it is more or less distended with eggs and 
aliment in the insects of this Order. In the text it was stated 
of this part that it scarcely equals the thorax in its diameter. 
As wo meet with this fly upon the wheat depositing its eggs, it is 
not rare to see irtdividuals with the abdomen as it is here repre¬ 
sented. It was my particular endeavor to picture this fly as it 
appears when abroad upon the wheat, so that others would be 
able to recognize it on seeing it there. I therefore aimed to give 
it its plump living aspect, and avoid the shrunken dead appear¬ 
ance which it presents as preserved in our cabinets. I am grati¬ 
fied to know the figure has served the purpose for which it was 
designed. In instances not a few, strangers on being introduced 
to me have adverted to their having known mo since they first 
discovered this fly by means of the figure 1 had given, they had 
so much admired the exactness with which it was represented. 
