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Ebe 1bc66ian f{^ 



By " Entomologist." * 



THE British farmer has been talking of the Hessian fly ever 

 since the period of the American Revolution in the days 

 of good King George, and it is hard upon him that the 

 insect should actually appear on these shores now, at a time when 

 the agricultural interest is so depressed, though it is Queen Vic- 

 toria's Jubilee year. But it was observed to occur in more than 

 one locality last year, though some entomologists had a doubt 

 whether another species had not been mistaken for this notable 

 fly ; for in the same group of insects are several, also foes of the 

 cereal crops, and in appearance, or even in habits, not unlike the 

 much-dreaded pest. We may accept it, however, as an incon- 

 trovertible fact, that up to the year 1886 none but straggling 

 specimens occurred in England (if any), though the insect has 

 been known as one of the most destructive amongst the " blights 

 of the wheat " for just a century. It should be stated, perhaps, 

 that the appellation of the " Hessian fly " arose from a notion that 

 tlie German mercenaries brought the plague into the United 

 States, but this was proved to have been impossible. Erom 1 786 on- 

 ward, however, the Hessian fly has caused enormous destruction of 

 corn in the American Continent, and extended itself over a great 

 part of those regions where grain is an important crop. It has 

 been conjectured that the primitive habitat of the fly is on the 

 borders of Europe and Asia — i.e., about the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, but this appears to me very unlikely, seeing that it was 

 first found to be doing mischief in America, and I would rather 

 assign it to that country. In Europe there is no record of its 

 occurrence until 1834, in Minorca, or possibly 1883, in Hungary; 

 it is reported from France, Austria, and other countries now, the 

 south of Russia being the last where if has caused alarm, but in 

 the Old World as yet the injury done is trifling compared with the 

 New, and all the researches of the American scientists and the 

 persevering efforts of growers have failed to put an eftectual check 

 on its yearly propagation and ravages. 



* From TAe Journal of Hoiiuullurc, 



