304 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



worms ; they looked upon it as a special instance of divine 

 punishment ; but as long as bodies were not buried deep in 

 the ground, or were deposited in the vaults of churches, 

 such things happened very frequently. These flies follow 

 the coffins and hover about them, until, by the putrefaction 

 and expansion of the bodies, the seams of the coffin are 

 pressed open, when they enter the cracks, deposit their 

 eggs, and soon after the maggots are hatched and ready for 

 their depredations. Those, therefore, who wish to avoid 

 being early devoured by worms must be interred, according 

 to Masonic rule, in a grave six feet deep under ground, due 

 east and west. 



Another insect of this order, and perhaps the most dis 

 tinguished in the archives of our Government, certainly the 

 most celebrated in Congressional and editorial harangues, is 



The HESSIAN-FLY (Cecidomyia destructor). This insect, 

 although incorrectly, yet very generally, was believed to 

 have been brought to America in 1780, in vessels laden 

 with grain, by the Hessian army that was rented to Great 

 Britain during the Revolutionary War. But, as we have 

 said, this was incorrect, as this insect was seen and known 

 in Staten Island, and at Flatbush, Long Island, as early as 

 1776. As early as 1783 the ravages of this insect had be 

 come so great throughout the fields of wheat, rye, and bar 

 ley, in many of the States, as to cause very considerable 

 alarm, and to call for decisive action on the part of the dif 

 ferent Legislatures, as well as of Congress. Consultations 

 were held as to the best means of averting an evil which 

 threatened to be more terrible than pestilence. Messengers 

 were dispatched to the different custom-houses in the Unit 

 ed States, for the purpose of examining every ship-load that 

 arrived, to see that no more of these insects were brought 

 ashore ; and notices to the same effect were sent to all cr.v 

 embassadors in Europe. The debates in Congress, with the 

 information that was collected in regard to this little insect, 



