STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
811 
MIDGE. PARASITES. MISTAKEN PARASITE. 
the old specimens of it in my collection, to see if I could from 
them draw up a suitable description of the species, I find on ex¬ 
amining them they are the Hessian fly’s parasite, which is repre¬ 
sented on Plate III, fig. 1. And I suspect it was this same 
species which I saw the first year of my observations on the 
midge. The Hessian fly and this parasite were somewhat com¬ 
mon in this vicinity for a few years at that period ; and it is 
quite probable that the parasite, unable to find a sufficient supply 
of Hessian fly larvae on which to bestow its eggs, was examining 
these larvae of the wheat midge, to ascertain if it might not be 
able to rear its young in them also. 
An insect which resembles the European parasites of the midge 
the most closely of anything which we meet with upon the wheat 
of this country is a species of Platygaster, so very like the 
P. Tipulce of Mr. Kirby that no one but an experienced 
observer of these minute insects will be apt to recognize it as 
really differing from that species. In the*volume of the State 
Natural History on Insects, page 180, a species is inserted under 
this name, Platygaster Tipulce. I know of no species but the one 
to which I now refer that can be alluded to in the remarks there 
made. But if this is the species intended, it is evident the 
description there given has been compiled from Curtis or Kirby; 
it could not have been drawn from our insect. And I suppose it 
to be this same species which has in other instances originated 
the reports which have repeatedly run through the newspapers, 
that a parasitic destroyer of the midge had been discovered, 
whereby it was probable our wheat crops would soon be released 
from this enemy. The last of these reports came to us from 
Canada West, a year since. See Journal State Agric. Soc., 
vol. ix, p. 30. 
As this insect is seen in company with the midge on the wheat 
ears, and is very numerous some years, I will here describe it, and 
present what observations I have thus far made with respect to its 
habits. A magnified view of it is given, Plate i, fig. 4, the crosslines 
below on the left side indicating its natural size, and on the right 
side at a is one of its antennae greatly magnified, whilst b is the 
antenna of Platygaster Tipulce, copied from Mr. Curtis’s figures. 
It will be noticed that these antennae differ very manifestly in 
their structure, b having the two middle joints very minute and 
globular, and the four last joints plainly thicker than the basal 
|Ag. Trans.] 33 
