THE HKSSIAN FLY IN BRITAIN : LIFE-HISTORY. 



11 



these " stems and also puparia of the Hessian Fly. The latter 

 agree exactly with Austrian specimens I received from M. Lefebvre 

 many years ago, sent to him by Dr. Hammerschmidt, of Vienna." 

 I farther forwarded specimens and full details to Professor W. 

 Saunders, President of the Entomological Society of Ontario, 

 Canada, whose entomological position is too well known to 

 require any observation from myself, and who was eminently 

 qualified from personal scientific and practical knowledge of the 

 attack to offer an opinion, and from him I received the 

 statement : — " The wheat-stem pests, enclosed in your letter, 

 which are embedded in the stalks of the wheat, are without 

 doubt the true Hessian Fly in its pupal condition, known as the 

 flax-seed state." I may add that in his presidential letter to the 

 Entomological Society of Ontario, recently delivered, Professor 

 Saunders officiall}' announced the appearance of the Hessian Fly 

 in Great Britain from my specimens and details, my letter of 

 details being read by Mr. James Fletcher, the Consulting Ento- 

 mologist of the Department of Agriculture of the Dominion. 



In regard to development of the imago and determination of 

 the same: — On the 8th of September an excellent specimen 

 developed. By forming a long wand of twisted paper and just 

 moistening the tip with a little chloroform I secured the imago 

 without injury, and also still so far alive that I was able to watch 

 it through the changes of tint, described by Dr. Wagner, from a 

 golden brown, through the shades of mulberry with transverse 

 black bands above on the first six segments of the abdomen, on 

 to the general brown tints 





of the abdomen, in which 

 the difference of appearance 

 of the black velvety spots 

 on the sides of these seg- 

 ments almost disappear, and 

 the black transverse bands 

 are not very noticeably 

 different in tint from the 

 browner colour. The an- 

 tennae and tarsi, and all the points that it was possible for me 

 to examine, precisely corresponded with those of C. destructor, 

 — I do not say with the description given by this or that observer, 

 as in a case of this enormous importance I examined into the 



abBo 



Imago. 



