814 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
X1DGE. PARASITES. WHEAT INSECTS OP PRANCE. 
Insects on'the wheat in France at the time it was in bloom in the 
year 1860. 
Wheat midge, .. 7 per cent. 
Another Cecidomyia of a black color,.. __ 2 “ 
Egg parasite, I. inserens, . 66 
Larva parasite, P. Tipula .. 11 
Macroglenes penetrans .. 8 
Total of parasites,. 85 “ 
Other small flies, Thrips, &c.,. 6 “ 
It thus appears that the midge was the most numerous of any 
injurious insect upon this wheat; but its parasites were vastly 
in excess of it, having been present in such numbers as would 
seem sufficient to immediately overwhelm and exterminate it. 
On seeing the above results we at once are desirous of knowing 
how the insects in the wheat fields of our own country compare with 
them. In what proportion is the midge to the other imsects on 
our American wheat, and what part of our insects are parasites ? 
I may remark that I have many times swept the net against the 
heads of wheat when it gathered no insects whatever but the 
midge; and often on seeing such a heap of these little rascals 
there, I have grasped the bottom of the net in my hand to crush 
and destroy them, whereby the net has acquired a yellow stain 
from their juices. To obtain the fairest comparison the case 
admits of, I aimed to sweep the wheat when it was at that stage 
of its bloom that the net would collect the anthers of the flowers 
and the insects in about the same proportions to each other that 
I found them in the vial from M. Bazin. It should however be 
observed that the present year has been a peculiar one, in that 
our wheat has been thronged with the grain aphis, whereby it 
has been impossible to sweep the wheat heads anywhere without 
gathering numbers of this insect which we have never had on our 
grain before. Although this insect had not become so multiplied 
as to attract notice the latter part of June, it was sufficiently 
common then to make the gatherings of the net different from 
what they would have been in any previous year. I would also 
state that I found the most common parasite upon our wheat to 
bo so exceedingly active that it escaped from the vials if 
they were not instantly closed on receiving it or were opened 
afterwards; and thus it was only by giving particular care to 
