STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
779 
MIDGE. KI.Y. ITS OVIPOSITOR DESCRIBED. 
ing thence to another individual, I noticed it to thrust the tip of 
its abdomen into a crevice of the chaffs and extrude an egg and 
withdraw the end of its body again so quickly, that I was certain 
no long hair-like ovipositor could be exserted from and again re¬ 
tracted into the body in so short a time without my seeing at least 
a portion of it. Now, on coming to reflect that in all the multi¬ 
tudes of these midges I had seen, not one had ever occurred with 
any part of this hair-like sting visibly extruded, I began to be skep¬ 
tical respecting its real existence. And I thereupon determined 
to examine the insect and ascertain what the structure of its 
ovipositor was. That examination resulted as I will now relate. 
When the abdomen is in its perfectly normal state, as it is when 
the fly first hatches from the pupa, it has the oval form represented 
in fig. 3 of plate ii, and is composed of seven joints. Upon 
gently pressing upon it, there first protrudes from its tip the ends 
of two minute processes, which are shaped much like two fingers. 
It is seldom that we meet with the midge in nature, that it does 
not show these two points, projecting more or less, although they 
have not been noticed by any previous writer. On increasing the 
pressure upon the abdomen, after these finger-like processes are 
fully extruded, the rounded end of a small joint to which they 
•are joined begins to appear, and soon after the square end of 
another joint is protruded also. The hind part of the abdomen 
now has the appearance represented in fig. 1 of plate ii, this being 
its usual appearance after the insect has begun to lay eggs. Thus 
we may tell on seeing one of these flies whether it lias commenced 
dropping its eggs or not, by noticing whether the end of its body 
is blunt as in fig. 3 or drawn out to a long point as in fig. 1. 
On grasping the pointed tip of the abdomen with forceps and 
drawing these two small joints fully out, they present the appear¬ 
ance shown in tig. 16 of plate ii. (I regret that the engraver 
overlooked my directions to reduce this figure to half the size of 
the drawing, in transferring it to the plate.) We here see at a 
the two small finger-like processes first mentioned, and b and c, 
the two small joints, here seen to bo long slender tubes, which 
shut one into the other like the joints of a telescope, and are then 
withdrawn in the same manner into the abdomen, the last two 
joints of which are shown at d. The first or basal one of these 
joints of the ovipositor, c, is but a third as thick as the last joint 
ot the abdomen, and is of a cylindrical form with a smooth sur- 
