RETORT OF THE STATE EXTOMOLOGIST 1901 



713 



received and there is little reason for believing, after making 

 allowance for the relative amounts of wheat grown in the varioue 

 counties, that the conditions reported in this county were essen- 

 tially different from those in some of the others. It has been 

 estimated by good authorities that half the normal crop of New 

 York was destroyed by the Hessian fly in 1901, entailing a lose of 

 about 13,000,000. 



An investigation in the fall of 1901 showed that in regions 

 where the Hessian fly had been injurious, mostly red wheat 

 (largely no. 8 in some sections, at least) had been sown and that 

 very little or no Hessian fly could be found in such pieces. A 

 few of the pests were found in volunteer white wheat (no. 6) 

 but no field of this was examined as none were in the vicinity 

 of the places visited. 



Description of various stages. The adult fly is rarely observed 

 by wheat growers. It is a small, nearly black, dark winged 



Fig 1 Hessian fly: a female; 6 flaxseeds or puparia; c larva or maggot; dhead and breast 

 bone of same ; e pupa removed from puparium ; /puparlum or flaxseed ; g Infested wheat stem ; 

 h male and female antennae ; b and g about twice natural size, all others much more enlarged 

 (after Marlett, U. S. dep't agrlc. Farm bul. 132) 



midge about /a inch in length and possesses very long, slender 

 legs. There are a number of closely related flies which have a 

 similar api>earance but ordinarily if one about this size and hav- 

 ing the general appearance represented in fig. la is found on 



