828 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
HESSIAN FLY. LARVA-PARASITE. 
be eleven-jointed, the third joint small and scarcely perceptible 
I now peiceive this small third joint to be in reality two joints 
Phis Hessian-fly larva-parasite, Scmiotellus destructor , (the 
female of which is represented, plate 3, fig. 1, and the antennae 
of the male at the bottom of the same plate at p.,) is one-tenth 
of an inch long and of a black color, its head and thorax having a 
brassy green reflection. Its legs and the base of its antennae are 
dull pale yellow, the middle of the thighs being often stained 
with brown or blackish. Its abdomen is smooth and polished 
and is usually tinged with yellow at its base, which tinge, some¬ 
times at least, becomes a bright lemon yellow spot in the males. 
The HEAD is ns broad ns the thorax and thrioo as broad as long when viewed from above, 
concave on its hind side and convex in front. Viewed in front it appears nearly globulaf with 
a depression rather below the centre, in which the antennte are inserted. The eves are of a 
dull red color and but slightly protuberant, ocoupying the sides of the head. As seen from 
above they appear egg-shaped, forming an angular point at their hind part. The ocelli or 
eyelets appear like three red glassy dots on the crown, placed at the angles of a triangle, of 
which the hind side is longest. The antenna when turned back reach to about the middle of 
the thorax. They arc elbowed, the bnsal joint occupying a third of their total length. This 
joint is dull pale yellow the other joints being black and covered with an inclined beard. In 
the female they are very slightly thicker towards their tips, whilst in the male, (see pinto 3, 
p.,) they are of uniform thickness through their entire length. Viewed with a common 
magnifier they appear ten-jointed, though the last joints are usually so compacted that in (ho 
dried specimen the full number cannot bo distinctly discerned. When highly magnified two 
small additional transverse joints may usually bo discerned more or less distinctly, betwcon 
the second and the third joints, of which the first is rather smaller than the second. The 
joints are slightly longer than thick, and rather narrower towards their bases. The second 
joint is longer than the others, its length being about double its thickness. Tho last joint is 
egg-shaped, twico as long as thick in the female and a third longer than this in tho male, its 
apex appearing to be cutoff transversely, with a minute teat-liko process protruded thcro- 
from. 
The tuouax is twice as long as broad, broadest forward of the middle and more narrowed 
behind than before. Its surface, as well ns that of the head, has a rough and shngreened 
appearance from nuraerons close punctures. Near its anterior end it is crossed by an impressed 
line, marking the collar, which is short and broad, of a slender crescent form. The meso- 
thorax or part next back of tho collar shows on each side a shallow groovo running obliquely 
upward and backward, above the wing sockets, and dividing what are termed the parapsidcs 
from tho upper or main part of the mesothornx A deep furrow across the middle of tho 
thorax and forking upon each side, more conspicuously separates these last named parts from 
the tegulaj—the small oval pieces between the forks and above the wing sockets—and from 
the scutcl, which Inst is large and rounded. 
The AunoMEN is black, smooth and polished, flattened egg-shape, broaderand shorter than 
the thorax, pointed at the tip, its sutures marked by fine transverso lines, and its basal seg¬ 
ment large. In the male it is smaller and more oval, its tip forming an angular point. 
Towards its base is usually seen a bright lemon y.ellow spot both above and beneath, which 
in the female is replaced by a dull pale yellowish cloud. 
The wings arc clear and glassy, fringed with fine hairs along their inner margins and tips 
and also along the middle part of their outer margins. Tho rib-vein of tho fore wings 
recedes from the outer edge at first and then curving joins the edge at a third of tho distanoo 
from tho base of the wing to its apex, and continues united with the edge more than two- 
thirds of the distance to tho npax, whero it terminates. Beyond tho middlo of the outer 
margin it gives off the stigmal branch, whioh is curved and thickened at its end, with its apex 
