422 INSECTS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



or four veins in them, and are fringed with little hairs around the 

 edges ; when not in use, they are generally carried flat on the 

 back. The hind-body of the females often ends with a retrac- 

 tile, conical tube, wherewith they deposit their eggs. Their 

 young are little, footless maggots, tapering at each end, and gen- 

 erally of a deep yellow or orange color. They live on the 

 juices of plants, and undergo their transformations either in these 

 plants, or in the ground. 



The Hessian fly was scientifically described by Mr. Say, in 

 1817, under the name of C cidomyia destructor.* It obtained 

 its common name from a supposition that it was brought to this 

 country, in some straw, by the Hessian troops under the com- 

 mand of Sir William Howe in the war of the Revolution, f This 

 supposition, however, has been thought to be erroneous, because 

 the early inquiries made to discover the Hessian fly in Germany 

 were unsuccessful ; and, in consequence thereof, Sir Joseph 

 Banks, in his report to the British Government, in 17S9, stated 

 that " no such insect could be found to exist in Germany or 

 any other part of Europe." J It appears, however, that the 

 same insect, or one exactly like it in habits, had been long known 

 in Europe ; an account of it may be found in Duhamel's " Prac- 

 tical Treatise of Husbandry," § and in a communication :j: made 

 to the Duke of Dorset, in 1788, by the Royal Society of 

 Agriculture of France. In the year 1833 the wheat in Hungary 

 was considerably injured by an insect of the same kind, supposed 

 to be the Hessian fly by the Baron Kollar. || Moreover, Mr. E. 

 C. Herrick, of New Haven, Connecticut, has recently published 

 an account H of the discovery of the true Hessian fly, by Mr. 

 James D. Dana, in Minorca, near Toulon in France, and in the 

 vicinity of Naples. Nothing has yet been found relative to the 

 existence of the Hessian fly in America before the Revolution. 



* " Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia." Vol. L, 



p. 45. 



t Dobson's " Encyclopedia." Vol. VIII., p. 491. 



I " Encyclopaedia Britannica," and Dobson's " Encyclopaedia." Vol. VIII., ar- 

 ticle Hessian Fly. 



§ p. HO. 4to. Loud. 1?.")!). See also his " Elements of Agriculture," Vol. I., 

 p. 269. Bvo. Lond. 1664. 



|| « Treatise," p. 118. 



U Silliman's " American Journal of Science," Vol. XLI., p. 133. 



