2 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Jan., 



than in this vicinity. Mr. Tilghman's description of this process 

 (Cultivator, viii., 82,) will convey so much more distinct a \ievf 

 to the general reader, than any other that has ever been published 

 that we here insert it. He says, " By the second week of Octo- 

 ber, the first sown wheat being well up, and having generally put 

 forth its second and third blades, I resorted to ray field to endeavor 

 to satisfy myself by ocular demonstration, if I could do so, wheth- 

 er the fly did deposit the egg on the blades of the growing plant. 

 Selecting what I deemed to be a favorable spot to make my ob- 

 servation, I placed myself in position, by reclining in a furrow 

 between two wheat lands. It was a fine, warm, calm forenoon; 

 and I had been on the watch but a minute or two, before I dis- 

 covered a number of small black flies, alighting and setting on the 

 wheat plants around me; and so strong seemed to be their predi- 

 lection for the wheat, that I did not observe a single fly to settle 

 on any grass, or any thing within my view, but the wheat. I 

 could distinctly see their bodies in motion when settled on the 

 leaves or blades of the wheat, and presently one alighted and set- 

 tled on the ridged surface of a blade completely within my reach 

 and distinct observation. She immediately commenced disbur- 

 thening her apparently well stored abdomen, by depositing her 

 eggs in the longitudinal cavity between the little ridges of the 

 blade. I could distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind of tube 

 or sting, or by the elongation of the body; the action of the in- 

 sect in making the deposit, being similar to that of the wasp in 

 stinging. After she had deposited, as I supposed, some eight or 

 ten eggs, I easily caught her, upon the blade, between ray finger 



and thumb After that, I continued ray observations on the 



flies, caught several similarly occupied, and could see the eggs 

 uniformly placed in the longitudinal cavities of the blades of the 

 wheat; their appearance being that of minute reddish specks. 



Its appearance and characters.. — The account of the eggs, and 

 also of the worms of the Hessian fly, as given by Mr. Herrick, is 

 drawn up with such scrupulous care, and is so full and definite in 

 (^very particular, that we are constrained to enhance the value of 

 this essay, by presenting it entire. He says, " The eggs are laid 

 in the long creases or furrows of the upper surface of the leaves 

 of the young wheat plant. While depositing her eggs, the insect 

 stands with her head towards the point or extremity of the leaf, 

 and at various distances between the point and where the leaf 

 joins and surrounds the stalk. The number found on a single leaf, 

 varies from a single egg up to thirty, or even more. The egg 

 is about a fiftieth of an inch long, cylindrical, rounded at the 

 ends, glossy and translucent, of a pale red color, becoming, in a 

 few hours, iiregularly spotted with deeper red. Between its ex- 

 clusion and its hatching, these red spots are continually changing 



