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IHE ENTOMOLOGIST 



Vol. XX.] JULY, 1887. [No. 290. 



THE HESSIAN FLY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



It may seem almost supererogatory, since we are told by Dr. 

 Herbert Loew, of Posen, that a " small library has been written 

 on the subject of C. destructor," to attempt to add our mite to 

 the vast store of information that has been worked out for us so 

 generously and perseveringly by scientists in Europe and America. 

 Dr. Packard tells us that the number of writers down to 1883 is 

 fifty-six, and that number has certainly increased and multiplied 

 itself, in proportion as the destruction caused by the gall-gnat has 

 extended its area. It was detected, it would seem, in Europe in 

 1834, in the Island of Minorca, by Messrs. Dana and Herrick, 

 though it has continued its ravages, with more or less of inter- 

 mission, for really upwards of a century. In America it 

 appears to have thriven indeed since 177 6. And here let it be 

 remarked that it has extended its ravages on a larger scale than 

 in Europe— from the sea-board of the Atlantic to Kansas, and 

 from the Gulf of Mexico to the Lakes and the River of St. 

 Lawrence. 



On July 27th, 1880, the first specimens of puparia, as Miss 

 Ormerod informs us in her pamphlet, were sent to her from 

 Hertford, from barley-fields cultivated by Mr. G. E. Palmer. In 

 Essex the puparia appeared on wheat, the case showing the 

 striations that would seem to adapt it to the culms, even more 

 conspicuously. I am especially indebted to Mr. D. Taylor, jun., 

 of Daleally Farm, Errol, near Perth, who has most kindly sent 

 me the puparia on three several occasions during the spring 

 months, and has thus enabled me to hatch the tenants. I have 



ENTOM.— JULY, 1887. Z 



