*798 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
MIDGE, LARVA. RIDING DOWN THE STRAW. 
Natura maxime miranda in minimis. In the works of nature 
we find the most to admire in their minutest particulars. Why, 
after it has finished feeding in the wheat ears, does this little 
yellow maggot of the midge, to reach its resting place in the 
earth prefer moving down the wetted straw in a globule of 
water, to the much shorter journey of crawling out on the beards 
of the wheat ear and with a skip throwing itself from thence to 
the ground ? I can conceive of but one reason for this. It is 
because in the globule of water it is shielded from being stung 
by its mortal foe, the Platygaster Tipula. The antennae of this 
parasite, which guide it in selecting suitable worms for it to 
puncture, lose their extreme sensitiveness no doubt when they 
are wet, and therefore it can only approach and sting worms 
which are dry and moving on a surface not bedewed with mois¬ 
ture. Thus, although here in America the midge has not been’ 
molested by a parasite for forty generations, it still remembers 
its old foe upon the other side of the ocean. It still dreads to 
take the short walk from its supper table to its lodging room 
unless it can put on its cloak, so fearful is it that if it ventures 
out doors without this disguise, its mortal enemy will meet it on 
the way and deal it its death wound. 
3d. By riding. The mode of passing to the ground which this 
larva evidently prefers to all others, is the third one I have 
named, that of riding down the straw. If the material therefor 
be in its way it puts it together, forming a kind of locomotive 
carriage, into which it enters, and then joggling it to give it a 
start* the vehicle runs down the side of the straw, carrying this 
little creature to the ground with such speed that it can now 
defy all its enemies to pursue and overtake it. In other words, 
if it finds the surface of the straw sulliciently bedewed with 
moisture, the worm instead of crawling directly downwards 
travels around diagonally and in a serpentine track, hereby 
increasing the globule of water in which it is moving until it 
becomes so large it is upon the point of running down the straw, 
its gravitation so nearly overbalances its adhesion. The worm 
now lets go its hold upon the straw and sinks to the lower side 
of this drop. Then by slightly wriggling its body it causes the 
• 
drop to move a little further whereby a few more particles are 
added to it, so increasing its weight that it now starts and runs 
down the straw, carrying the worm in it. In this way these 
