331 Wiscoxsix State Horticultubal Society. 



as has been remarked, of the evil results that may flow from one 

 bad act. 



The following description is taken from Professor Packard's 

 report, as a member of the United States Entomological Commis- 

 sion. " This insect belongs to the Dipteria or two-winged insects, 

 of which the common house fly is the best known type. It 

 belongs to the family Cecidomyidce, a large group of minute flies 

 resembling the crane flies or daddy-long-legs, but of diminutive 

 form. They are nearly all gall-flies, the females laying their eggs 

 by means of the soft extensible end of the body which slides 

 back and forth like the joints of a telescope. The irritation 

 caused by the egg results in the swelling of the stems of the plants, 

 or the formatioD of tumors or galls on the leaves and buds. The 

 Hessian Fly does not produce true galls in this way, but the pres- 

 ence of the insect in the flaxseed state, between the leaf and the 

 stalk, causes the stem to swell and the leaves to wither and die. 

 The body of the female (Fig. 21 — 2, 2,) is rather slender, uni- 

 formly dark brown, the head is round but somewhat flattened 

 the eyes are black, the wings uniformly dull smoky brown, while 

 the legs are paler brown than the rest of the upper side of the 

 body. The body, wings and legs are provided, with fine hair-like 

 scales, those on the wiugs being in many cases quite broad and 

 ribbed, somewhat like the scales on the wings of a butterfly or 

 moth. The brown antenna? are about half as long as the 

 body ; the joints, seventeen in number, are very distinct, like a 

 string of beads. The legs are of the same color as the under side 

 oE the body, being a little paler than the back. The abdomen is 

 rather full, with nine well-marked rings or segments, the paler 

 small ovipositor forming the tenth. The length of the fly is about 

 one-tenth of one inch. 



" The male (Fig. 21 — 1, 1) is rather smaller than the female, 

 being distinguished, by the long, slender abdomen, and the longer 

 and more hairy antennas, in which there are twenty joints." 



The egg is of a pale red color, very minute in size, about a 

 fifteenth of an inch in length. The eggs are usually laid on the 

 upper side of the blade near where it joins the stalk or crown of 

 the root. Professor A. J. Co}k, of Michigan Agricultural C )llege, 



