572 
DIPTERA. 
on the young plants, and long before the grain is ripe ; 
for many persons have witnessed and testified to tliis fact. 
In the New England States, winter wheat, as it is called, is 
usually sown about the first of September. Towards the end 
of this month, and in October, when the grain has sprouted, 
and begins to show a leaf or two, the flies appear in the 
fields, and, having paired, begin to lay their eggs, in which 
business they are occupied for several weeks. 
The following interesting account of the manner in which 
this is done was written by Mr. Edward Tilghman, of 
Queen Ann County, Maryland, and was published in the 
eighth volume of “ The Cultivator,” in May, 1841. “ By 
the second week of October, the first-sown wheat being 
well up, and having generally put forth its second and 
third blades, I resorted to my field in a fine warm fore- 
noon, to endeavor to satisfy myself, by ocular demonstra- 
tion, whether the fly did deposit the egg on the blades of 
the growing plant. Selecting a favorable spot to make 
my observation, I placed myself in a reclining position in 
a furrow, and had been on the watch but a minute or 
two before I discovered a number of small black flies 
alighting and sitting on the wheat plants around me, and 
presently one settled on the ridged surface of a blade of 
a plant completely within my reach and distinct observa- 
tion. She immediately began depositing her eggs in the 
longitudinal cavity between the little ridges of the blade. 
I could distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind of tube 
or sting. After she had deposited eight or ten eggs, I 
easily caught her upon the blade, and wrapped her up in 
a piece of paper. I then proceeded to take up the plant, 
with as much as I conveniently could of the circumjacent 
earth, and wrapped it all securely in a piece of paper. 
After that I continued my observations on the flies, caught 
several similarly occupied, and could see the eggs uniformly 
placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades of the 
wheat; their appearance being that of minute reddish 
