STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
813 
MIDGE. PARASITES. TUB SAME IN FRANCE AS IN ENOLAND. 
ing perfectly with Mr. Kirby’s figure. It therefore appears that 
it is only when special care is takeh to fully extend the sting 
that this spear head becomes expanded and visible at its end; 
and thus it might readily escape Mr. Kirby’s notice. In all other 
respects, his description so fully coincides with these insects upon 
the French wheat that I am obliged to think they are the same, 
and that the Inostemma punctig.er of Nees is therefore only a 
synonym of the I. inserens of Kirby. 
The next species which we observe among these specimens is 
that which Dr. Sichel has determined to be the Platygaster scu- 
tellaris of Nees, a name evidently imposed from the circumstance 
of its having the scutel prolonged into a thorn-like point. In 
this character and also in the shape and colors of its body and 
legs, it is so strikingly like the Platygaster Tipulce of Mr. Kirby 
that I am persuaded it is nothing else than the same species. 
On looking over these specimens still further, I detect among 
them another species which the magnifying glass readily distin¬ 
guishes fr^m the two preceding by its blue black instead of pure 
coal black color. Its abdomen is also noticed to be strongly 
compressed and sharp edged along the top of the back instead of 
having the broad egg shaped and oval form of the others. The 
antennae are also shorter, the feet are dull white, and the wings 
show a thick rib vein which is united with the outer edge along 
the middle, from whence it sends off a short branch almost in a 
transverse direction, this branch ending in a round head in the 
female while in the larger sized male this head is oval or thick 
lunate. This species it is very clear is the Macroglenes penetrans 
of Kirby and Curtis. 
Thus, as the result of this examination, we learn that the same 
three parasites which Mr. Kirby found associated with the wheat 
midge in England upwards of sixty years ago, are common with 
it in the wheat fields of France at the present time. 
Another most interesting enquiry presents itself in this connec¬ 
tion. What is the relative number of these parasitic destroyers 
to the midge on which they prey, and what proportion does the 
midge itself bear to the other injurious insects upon the French 
wheat ? Upon emptying one small parcel after another from this 
vial upon paper and then separating the specimens, placing each 
kind by itself and counting their number, until some hundreds 
have been enumerated, we obtain the following result: 
