INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 171 



torpid during- that season. When this little animal 

 was first observed in England, it created no small 

 alarm amongst agriculturisis lest it should prove to be 

 the Hessian jly^ so notorious for its depredations in 

 North America ; but Mr. Marsham, by tracing out the 

 species, proved the alarm to be unfounded^. That 

 there was sufficient cause for apprehension, should it 

 have so turned out, what I have formerly stated con- 

 cerning the latter insect, and the additional facts which 

 I shall now adduce, will amply show. 



The ravages of the aniiual just alluded to, which 

 was first noticed in 177G, and received its name from 

 an erroneous idea that it was Carried by the Hessian 

 troops in their straw from Germany, were at one time 

 so universal as to threaten, where it appeared, the total 

 abolition of the culture of wheat ; though, by recent 

 accounts, the injury v»'hich it now occasions is much less 

 than at first. It commences its depredations in autumn, 

 as soon as the plant begins to appear above ground, 

 when it devours the leaf and stem with equal voracity 

 until stopped by the frost. When the return of spring 

 brings a milder temperature the fly appears again, and 

 deposits its eggs in the heart of the main stems, w hich 

 it perforates and so weakens, that when the ear begins 

 to grow heavy, and is about to go into the milky state, 

 they break down and perish. All the crops, as far as 

 it extended its flight, fell before this I'avager. It first 

 showed itself in Long Island, from w hence it proceeded 

 inland at about the rate of fifteen or twenty miles 

 annually, and by the year 1789 had reached 200 miles 

 from its original station. I must observe, however, 



^ Linn. Trans. \\. 76-80. 



