No. 105.] 257 



From this it would appear that the effects produced by the wheat-fly 

 had been known for some time to the farmers of England, though 

 imputed by them to a wrong cause. He says, "What the farmers 

 call the yellows in wheat, and which they consider as a kind of 

 mildew, is in fact occasioned by a small yellow fly with blue wings, 

 about the size of a gnat. This blows in the ear of the corn, and 

 produces a worm, almost invisible to the naked eye ; but being seen 

 through a pocket microscope, it appears a large yellow maggot, of 

 the color and gloss of amber, and is so prolific that I last week dis- 

 tinctly counted forty-one living yellow maggots in the husk of one 

 single grain of wheat — a number sufficient to eat up and destroy the 

 corn in a whole ear. * * * q^^ q^ tj^ggg yellow flies 



laid at least eight or ten eggs of an oblong shape on my thumb, only 

 while carrying by the wing across three or four ridges." 



It was several years subsequent to this date, that the accounts of 

 the appalling ravages of the Hessian fly among the wheat crops of 

 America reached Europe ; and as this fly was universally believed to 

 have been derived from the old world, extensive and careful exami- 

 nations of the grain fields there were made to detect it, that its habits 

 might be learned, and means devised for preventing its becoming 

 such a scourge as it was to this country. These investigations, con- 

 ducted often at the public expense, and by men whose acquirements 

 peculiarly fitted them for such a work, resulted in a confident an- 

 nouncement, which received general credence for a long series of 

 years, that the Hessian fly did not exist in Europe ; yet in their 

 course, s'everal other species of insects injurious to the cultivated 

 grains of that continent were discovered, and the wheat-fly received 

 a particular examination. Mr. Curtis, generally so accurate in his 

 statements, says that it was first discovered at this time ; but the ac- 

 count already given from Mr. Gullet, shows that it was known in 

 England at least twenty-five years earlier than Mr. C. supposes, and 



fluid juices produce a yellow stain, without any glossiness. Every one accustomed to 

 the handling of insects, will at once recognize the character in question as applying 

 admirably to some small species of moth; and the " Committee on Husbandry" of the 

 Society, in their remarks at the close of Col. Carter's paper, are doubtless correct in 

 their statement, that these insects " appear to be of the same kind with those that do 

 the like mischief in Europe, which a gentleman of Angumois describes to Mr. Du- 

 hamel," and which have since become so well known as the "Augnmois grain-moth," 

 described by the naturalist Olivier under the technical name of Alucita cerealella. 



[Senate, No. 105.J 17 



