86 



North Carolina Poplars have been gnawed by them. You should not lose the oppor- 

 tunity to destroy these beetles, which can be done by placing a lantern suspended 

 over a pan containing water with a thin scum of coal-oil on top near the tree. If the 

 beetles ai"e extremely numerous several of these trap lanterns will be necessary to 

 destroy them. The same insects are just now damaging the Oaks upon the grounds of 

 this Department. [May 18, 1887]. 



Insects Confounded -with the Hessian Ply prior to the Revolution. 



Du Haa;el does not mention the Hessian Fly by name, but on page 90, referring to 

 insects injurious to corn, says: 



"There is a smaller kind of worm, which gets into the roots, chiefly oats, and, 

 working upwards, destroys all the inside of the plant, which perishes soon after. I 

 suspect it to have been an insect of this kind that destroyed so much wheat in the 

 neighborhood of Geneva, and which M. de Chateau vieux describes thu 5: 'Our wheat 

 in the mouth of May, 1755, sustained a loss, which even that cultivated according to 

 the new husbandry did not escape. We found in it many little white worms, which 

 afterwards became a chestnut color. They post themselves between the blades and 

 eat the stems. They are usually found between the first joint and the roots. Every 

 stalk which they attacked grew no more, but became yellow and withered. The 

 same misfortune happened to us in the year 1732. These insects appeared about the 

 middle of May and made such havoc that the crop was almost destroyed.' {Ver- 

 batim et literatim from the work of M. Du Hamel du Menceau, New Hamburg edi- 

 tion, 1759.) 



The Angoumois Moth is also fully described by the author. If the above does not 

 refer to the Hessian Fly it must be some closely allied pest. I have eight volumes of 

 Arthur Young's works, but have not had the time to examine them for flies. — [A. S. 

 Fuller, Eidgewood, N. J., July 16, 1888, 



Reply. — I thank you for the extracts from Du Hamel. The first indicates very 

 plainly that it has no reference to the Hessian Fly, but the second has one expression 

 that might apply to the Hessian Fly, viz, that about "posting themselves between 

 the blade," but unfortunately this is more than olfset by the statement of their eating 

 the stems, and this proves with sufficient conclusiveness that it was not the Hessian 

 Fly but a species of Chlorops. As you are aware these also have pale larvae and be- 

 come brown in the pupa state, while one species at least is frequently found between 

 the blades. No, there can be no question whatever that this case refers not to the 

 Hessian Fly but to some species of Chlorops or Meromyza or to one of the many species 

 of insects which are known to attack small grains in a somewhat similar way. There 

 is not a particle of positive evidence of the existence of the Hessian Fly at that early 

 period in this country, and the reference to Du Hamel in the minutes of the American 

 Philosophical Society, May 18, 1768, is undoubtedly to his article on the Angoumois 

 Grain-moth. * * * [July 23, 1888.] 



Injury from nou-migratory Locusts in Michigan. 



I will send you some grasshoppers that have destroyed all the oats about this sec- 

 tion. What is left is worthless, as there is nothing left but the shell. I notice that 

 the first brood is gone ; they were very large. The second l)rood is growing fast. 

 They had large wings, much longer than the body. * » * jf they breed very fast 

 they will clean ns out. I have traveled about among the farmers on purpose to see 

 the crops ; all are much injured. 



The boys say they have eeeu the locusts on the bushes and trees in the woods. They 

 did not injure crops any. » * * i don't travel in the woods much. I would like 

 to know what the seventeen-year means. Do they come every seventeen years or 

 will they stay seventeen years ? — [Anthony O'Donnell, Saint James, Manitou County, 

 Mich., August 27, 18S8. 



