262 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



infested districts swarmed with them to so great a 

 degree, that every vessel was filled with them ; five 

 hmidred were actually counted on a glass tumbler 

 which had been set down for a few minutes with a 

 little beer in it. They were observed crossing the 

 Delaware river like a cloud ; and even mountains do 

 not seem to interrupt their progress.* We can well 

 understand, therefore, that so formidable a ravager 

 should have caused a very great alarm ; and even our 

 own government was in fear lest the insect should be 

 imported. The privy council, indeed, sat day after 

 day in deep consultation what measures should be 

 adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity more to 

 be dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or 

 the pestilence. Expresses were sent off in all direc- 

 tions to the officers of the customs at the different out- 

 ports respecting the examination of cargoes, — de- 

 spatches were written to the ambassadors in France, 

 Austria, Prussia, and America, to gain information, — 

 and so important altogether was the business deemed, 

 that the minutes of council, and the documents col- 

 lected from all quarters, fill upwards of two hundred 

 pages.t 



As in the case of the English wheat-fly, the Ame- 

 rican Hessian-fly has a formidable enemy in a minute 

 four-winged fly {Ceraphron destructor, Say), which 

 deposits its eggs in the larvae. Were it not for the 

 Ceraphron, indeed, Mr. Say is of opinion that the 

 crops of wheat would be totally annihilated in the 

 districts where the Hessian-fly prevails. J 



Those who have, from popular associations, been 

 accustomed to look with disgust at the little white 



* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. p. 172. 

 f Young, Annals of Aa;ric., vol xi, 

 I Journ. of Acad. Philadelpli. tit supra. 



