464 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION. 



observations of Mr. Worth are interesting as showing that the 

 insect is not left without resources, although there are no young 

 wheat-plants growing in June; the upper joints of those old 

 plants, that are late in ripening, being found to yield sufficient 

 nourishment for a portion, at least, of the progeny of the June 

 flies. They show, also, how easily the insects might be im- 

 ported from Europe in the straw containing them, in the flax- 

 seed state, about the upper joints. 



The old discussion, concerning the place where the Hessian 

 fly lays her eggs, was revived in the year 1841, in consequence 

 of a communication made by Miss Margaretta H. Morris, of 

 Germantown, Pennsylvania, to " The American Philosophical 

 Society," of Philadelphia. The following remarks upon it are 

 extracted from a Report made to the same Society, and pub- 

 lished in their "Proceedings" for November and December, 

 1840. " Miss Morris believes she has established that the 

 ovum (egg) of this destructive insect is deposited in the seed 

 of the wheat, and not in the stalk or culm. She has watched 

 the progress of the animal since June, 1836, and has satisfied 

 herself that she has frequently seen the larva within the seed. 

 She has also detected the larva, at various stages of its pro- 

 gress, from the seed to between the body of the stalk and the 

 sheath of the leaves. According to her observations, the 

 recently hatched larva penetrates to the centre of the straw, 

 where it may be found of a pale greenish white semitrans- 

 parent appearance, in form somewhat resembling a silk worm. 

 From one to six of these have been found at various heights 

 from the seed to the third joint." Miss Morris's communica- 

 tion had not been published in full when the first edition of 

 this work was prepared for the press ; but, from the foregoing 

 Report, we are led to infer, that the egg, being sowed with the 

 grain, is hatched in the ground, and that the maggot after- 

 wards mounts from the seed through the middle of the stem, 

 and, having reached a proper height, escapes from the hollow 

 of the straw to the outside, where it takes the pupa or flax- 

 seed state. The fact that the Hessian fly does ordinarily lay 

 her eggs on the young leaves of wheat, barley, and rye, both 

 in the spring and in the autumn, is too well authenticated to 



