HESSIAN FLY. 
15 
of Mount Royd, Bradford, from living specimens (published in the 
‘Entomologist’ for July, 1887). The specimens were bred by Mr. 
Inchbald from “flax-seeds” (or puparia) forwarded by Mr. D. Taylor, 
jun., from his farm of Daleally, Errol, N.B. 
Cecidomyia destructor, Say. 
Thorax niger. Abdomen carnosum, femina maculis nigris quadratis disjunctis, 
mare confluentibus, signatum. Antennae 17-articulatae, mare petiolatae, femina 
sessiles. Epistoma cirro nigro instructo. Pedes testacei nigro-hirti. Ala nigre- 
scentes, radicibus rufis. Long. mas. 2, fern. 3 mm. 
Female. —The female being the larger, more abundant, and more characteristic 
sex, I shall first describe it, and then mention the distinctive points of the male. 
Head. Eyes, with forehead and occiput, black, the last clothed with thick and 
strong black hairs. Epistome prominent, and furnished with a tuft of black hairs. 
Palpi yellow, the four joints being partly covered with black scales, which are more 
numerous on the second than on the first and third divisions, and entirely cover 
the terminal joint. Proboscis very small, and of a pink colour. Antennae rather 
more than a third of the length of the body, yellowish brown, consisting of seven¬ 
teen joints shortly verticillated with black hairs. The two basal joints are nearly 
twice as thick as the others; the first is club- or rather cup-shaped; the second 
nearly globular; the next are all smooth and cylindrical (turning irregular in size 
and shape when dry), about twice as long as broad, becoming gradually rather 
smaller towards the end, and terminating in an elongated tapering joint, which is 
about half as long again as the one before it. Collar or neck pinkish yellow. 
Thorax black, with grey reflections, having a few scattered white hairs on the 
sides, and two indistinct lines of thinly placed white hairs along the dorso-central 
region. A pinkish red irregular-shaped streak or patch runs from the side of the 
neck along the lower side of the thorax to the base of the wing. Scutellum black, 
prominent, and crested with black hairs. Halteres pale red, irregularly clothed 
with patches of black scales. 
Abdomen pinkish or yellowish brown, with eight segments; the first is nearly 
black: all the others are marked on each side of the dorsum with a large square 
velvet-black spot, which spots are separated by a considerable longitudinal space 
from those on the opposite side on all the intermediate segments, but become 
nearly confluent on the seventh and eighth joints. A single row of similar large 
square spots runs down the centre of the ventral surface. The oviduct consists of 
three joints; the basal one is thick and rounded, the second and third are cylin¬ 
drical, the last one being of about half the diameter of the second, pointed, and 
without lamellae. They are all pale red, the terminal one being brown at the tip. 
Leys pink, becoming brownish yellow after death, clothed irregularly with black 
scale-like hairs, which are generally thicker in the neighbourhood of the joints. 
The coxae are brown, the short fore femora or trochanters black, the others 
yellowish brown. The ends of the tarsi and fore tibiae are generally darker than 
the other parts. 
Wings pink at the roots, and clothed with black hairs ; the second longitudinal 
vein runs nearly straight until near its extremity, when it curves slightly down and 
reaches the border of the wing a little above (or before) the apex. The third longi¬ 
tudinal vein gives off its descending branch in the usual way, which reaches the 
hind margin of the wing at a point exactly opposite the termination of the first 
longitudinal vein. 
Male.— The male insect differs from the female by being about one-tliird shorter 
