204 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



scarcely one who has better known the insect. He has given his convic- 

 tion of their identity in the most unequivocal terms. The statement that 

 the insect had been in Minorca from time immemorial, and often done 

 great damage both there and in Spain, is very interesting, but not to be ^ 

 accepted as certain before having been corroborated by reliable reports. 

 I am not able to compare the old Spanish literature, but I think it 

 should be done. 



The existence of the fly in Asia Minor, near the shore, is probable from 

 the discovery made by Prof. Loew of the larva and pupa on the straw in 

 1842, and later recognized by him as identical with his C secalina. 



Mr. V. von Motschulsky describes in 1852 a fly very obnoxious to the 

 wheat in the governments of Saraton and Simbirek, in Rusland, as C. 

 funesta, together with its parasites. I ma)- add that von Motschulsky, after 

 his return from America, and having received typical specimens of the 

 Hessian fly and its parasites from Dr. A. Fitch, has assured me that C. 

 funesta and C. destructor are the same species. This is also accepted in 

 von Osten-Sacken's catalogue. Mr. Koeppen, in his excellent work just 

 published •' On Injurious Insects in Rusland," states that since that time 

 nothing has been known about the fly in those parts of Rusland. " Before 

 1879," says Koeppen, "we had no reliable report about the existence of 

 the Hessian fly in Rusland, which was discovered in Poltowa and Sula by 

 Mr. Lindemann in the summer of 1879, together with its parasites." 



In 1857 and 1858 the rye was extensively damaged in Silesia, Posen 

 and Prussia. Prof. Loew, at the time the leading Dipterologist studied the 

 insect, and declared it to be very similar to the Hessian fly, but probably 

 a new species named by him C. secalina. He had never seen the Ameri-' 

 can species, and had to rely on Dr. A. Fitch's description, which did not 

 fully agree with C. secalina. In 1859 the same insect was very obnoxious 

 to the rye in Eastern Prussia, and was studied by myself. In i860 

 it had advanced westward to Augusburg, where it was studied by Prof. 

 Rosenhauer, and to Fulda, Hesse. Everywhere it was considered to be 

 an entirely new pest, never seen or observed before. In Hesse the fly 

 was studied by Dr. B. Wagner, and his monograph is perhaps the most 

 satisfactory existing in Germany, though it seems to be entirely unknown 

 here. The fly destroyed in Hesse wheat, rye and barley. I am not able 

 to say whether the insect did advance farther west. In the following years 

 the calamity subsided, and was soon nearly forgotten. Extensive destruc- 

 tions in Hungary in 1864 are reported by Mr. Haberlandt and Kuenstler, 



