INSECTS INFESTING WHEAT. 



275 



Fig. 259. 



Sir John Banks, an 



Fig. 259. — Female Hessian Fly, en- 

 larged — color, black. 



The Hessian fly (Fig. 259), named 

 Cecidomyia destructor by Mr. Say, ap- 

 peared in this country in 1776, and the 

 general opinion was that it was imported 

 in the stores by the Hessian soldiers in 

 the employ of the British Government, 

 from which it derived the name of 

 " Hessian Fly." There is probably no 

 other species of the insect kingdom that 

 has occasioned so much discussion as to 

 whether it is indigenous to this country. 

 English entomologist, reports to the British Government, in 

 1789, that no such insect could be found to exist in Germany. 

 Its first appearance in this country was in 1776, on Staten 

 Island, and at Flatbush, on the western extremity of Long 

 Island. Some writers state that it travels about seven miles 

 each Summer. However, Dr. Chapman discovered it in 1787 

 on the west side of the Alleghany Mountains, which would be 

 about thirty miles each year, dating from Staten Island in 

 1776. Wheat, rye, barley, and even timothy grass, were 

 attacked by them ; and so great was their ravages in the larva 

 state that the cultivation of wheat was abandoned in many 

 places where they had established themselves. It has been 

 a subject of general discussion as to where the female 

 deposits her eggs. Some claim on the young leaves of the 

 wheat, others on the grain before sowing ; but the following 

 opinioli is evidentl.y correct, as expressed by Dr. Chapman : 

 " The Hessian ily lays her eggs in the small creases of the 

 young leaves of the wheat." Mr. Havens states that the fly 

 lays her eggs on the leaves. Mr. Herrick writes : " I have 

 repeatedly, both in Autumn and in Spring, seen the Hessian 

 fly in the act of depositing her eggs on wheat, and have also 

 found that she selects for this purpose the leaves of the }' oung 

 plant. The eggs are laid in various numbers on the upper 

 surface of the strip-shaped portion (or blade) of the leaf." Mr. 

 Herrick also states that the number of eggs on a single leaf is 



