14 



kerosene emulsion poured upon the surface of the earth was invari- 

 ably fatal to the enclosed worms. (The emulsion was composed of 

 suds, one pound of soap to ten gallons of water, churned with an 

 equal quantity of kerosene. The amount of kerosene used was 

 consequently one half a dram.) 



In the "Country Gentleman" for May 30, 1872, I find an inter- 

 esting note from a subscriber living in Queens county, New York, 

 which it seems to me may possibly relate to the root web worm : 



"Yesterday," he says, "I was surprised to find that the young 

 corn had almost entirely disappeared, and upon examination of the 

 hills worms like the specimen sent herewith were found just be- 

 neath the surface of the ground, that had evidently worked the de- 

 struction of the growing crop. From one to five or six were found 

 in proximity to a hill. They are enveloped in a web, and have the 

 faculty, when detached from it, to spring somewhat after the man- 

 ner of the worms often found in cheese. 



"Their method of destruction appears to be in eating the young 

 shoot just under the surface of the ground, until it falls over and 

 dies, after which they gnaw the stumps downward toward the ker- 

 nel, thereby probably preventing the plant from shooting out again, 

 as it does after the ravages of the worm known as the cut or black 

 worm. 



"The field in which the corn is planted was a sward, but the 

 grass last summer on it appeared to be dead ; whether the same in- 

 sect or worm caused that, I do not know." 



The Hessian fly {Cecidomyia destructor. Say) has continued dur- 

 ing the last year its career of devastation in southern Illinois 

 with a very unusual persistence. As a general rule, a year of ex- 

 traordinary abundance of this insect is followed by one of immunity 

 from its ravages ; but for three successive years in the counties of 

 Fayette, Effingham, and Clay, the Hessian fly has abounded in num- 

 bers to prevent the harvesting of many fields of wheat, and to inflict 

 very serious injury upon many more As a consequence, last autumn, 

 I heard seriously debated the advisability of general abandonment, 

 throughout the infested region, of the cultivation of wheat until the 

 Hessian fly had disappeared. 



From our own observations and collections of the last three years, 

 and from information contributed by very intelligent correspondents 

 who have spent years in the midst of the Hessian fly, I infer the 

 strong probability of two important items in the life history of the 

 species : (1) the emergence as images, before harvest, of a great part 

 of the larvse found in the wheat in May ; (2) the development 

 of an additional brood in volunteer wheat, the flies of which appear 

 in autumn early enough to deposit their eggs and produce a third 

 In'ood of larvae before the advent of winter. These facts suggest the 

 possibility of greatly checking, if not practically arresting, the mul- 

 tiplication of the Hessian fly in our latitude by the following simple 

 procedure : According to the best agricultural practice, the stubble 

 is plowed for wheat immediately after harvest. In case there has 

 been little or no shelling out of the grain in the field, a little may 

 be sown before plowing, so that enough may grow, either of volunteer 



