1, 6, infested floret; 2, 3, larvæ; 4, 5, cased larva or pupa, natural size and magnified; 7, 8, part of horns, magnified; 9, 10, wheat midge; and 11-14, ichneumon parasites, natural size and magnified.
FIG. 62.—WHEAT MIDGE, CECIDOMYIA TRITICI.
November 7, 1893.
I beg to offer you my best thanks for your very acceptable letter of the 31st of October. Indeed, I am greatly obliged to you for not only kindly giving me your own information as to amount of wasp presence observed in the past season, but also the translation into English of the account of their great appearance at Tromsö in 1883-4. This is exceedingly interesting, and also very entertaining. I have enjoyed reading this spirited account uncommonly, and I shall like very much to add it (of course duly acknowledged) to my paper on wasps in my next Annual Report.
[The translation appeared as follows:—
“In the years 1883-1884, there was an unusual prevalence of them in the Arctic Norway, especially at Tromsö and other islands in the vicinity. Mr. J. S. Schneider, Conservator at Tromsö Museum, writes in the Swedish ‘Entomologisk Tidskrift,’ 1885, pp. 148, 149, about this matter as follows:—‘Who can tell all the tears which these wicked animals have squeezed from the poor children, or the swearings which the mowers have thrown out, the half-shut eyes, and the swollen hands and cheeks which have shown forth in the autumn months of these two years? Perhaps this may appear an exaggeration, but it comes, however, pretty near the truth. They built their nests everywhere, in the earth, in stone walls, behind the wainscottings of the houses, under garden benches, on the trees; it swarmed with wasps on all the flowers and bushes, the windows were filled with them, they crawled on the plates of the dining-tables, licked of the dishes with preserves, crawled under the clothings, and in the hair, and did not at all spare the ladies! When one was going in the woods, a humming warbling was heard, which is still sounding in my ears; wasps everywhere, it was almost a despair,’ &c.
“I have not seen anywhere in the southern districts of our country the wasps so exceedingly numerous as they must have been in Tromsö in the said years. The species occurring here are: Vespa crabro, media, saxonica, and var. norvegica, holsatica, vulgaris, germanica, rufa, and Pseudovespa austriaca.” (W. M. S.).]
November 7, 1893 (continued).
Now I have much pleasure in begging your acceptance of a few pamphlets sent accompanying by book post—three on Hessian fly and one on Paris-green. Two of the Hessian fly pamphlets were condensed notes regarding its first appearance here, the other a report in full of the communications of my correspondents. I wished very much to send you a similar detailed report of the first year’s observations of this Cecidomyia destructor (fig. [15]) in Britain, but as yet I have not been able to find one remaining. Every year since the first appearance of this infestation amongst us, I have received some amount of information as to its greater or less presence, and I have given, so far as I could, my best attention to it. If it should happen that there is any point on which you would wish a reply to any inquiries, I would with pleasure do my best to answer fully, and would think myself honoured, as well as be very much pleased to be in communication with you on the above subject, or any other point of injurious insect presence.
[On the subject of wasps, Miss Ormerod wrote to Mr. Edward Connold on January 15, 1894:—
“I am very glad that you were able to procure my late brother’s book on “Social Wasps” and that its perusal gave you pleasure. You ask me how the combs were removed from the nests. I do not know how my brother managed it, but I found the matter very easy, as long as the nests had been so recently taken from out-of-door localities, that the paper had not become too dry to be operated on. Indeed, the damp condition induced by the first stages of the very nasty state that combs with dead grubs get into, rather facilitated work than otherwise. The first thing in working on a nest of any size was to get a pair of scissors, long in the blades, thin, and also very sharp. Then carefully make a clean vertical cut through the paper-case of the nest from the entrance below nearly to the top. Through this great gash I had no difficulty in removing the combs—so to say (although it is a disagreeable word) “eviscerating” the nest. I began with the smallest and lowest comb. Inserting my scissors horizontally I snipped through the little paper pillars by which it was connected with the comb above and withdrew it in a very convenient way, with fingers or forceps (or very likely by help of the scissors) through the opening. Continuing this process I do not remember that I ever failed to clear out the comb successfully. It did not always require to be entirely removed, if I recollect rightly. I think sometimes the upper comb did not require removal. When all was cleared out, I filled the empty paper case with cotton wool, and applying plenty of gum to this below the slit, I very gently pressed the paper back to its former position, and if the work had been dexterously done, the injury did not show much. If the paper had been broken of course the damage showed, and it was requisite to be careful that the gum or adhesive mixture used for keeping the cut edges in their places did not run about. Sometimes where circumstances permitted, I cut a little aside from the straight line in places so as to secure an uninjured piece of a layer to hide part of the slit. In this way very pretty specimens could be arranged, showing both nest and comb. I have been preparing a long paper on the wasp attack of last year for my next Annual Report. I have had very good contributions, and hope it may be liked.