INJURIOUS INSECTS. 235 



produced by the wheat-fly had been known for some lime to the 

 farmers of England, though imputed by them to a wrong cause. 

 He^says, " What the farmers call the yellows in wjieat, and which 

 I they consider as a kind of mildew, is, in fact, occasioned by a small 

 ! yellow fly, with blue wings, about the size of a gnat. This blows in 

 the ear of the corn, and produces a worm, almost invisible to the 

 naked eye : but, being seen through a pocket microscope, it appears 

 a large yellow maggot, of the color and gloss of amber, and is so 

 prolific that 1 distinctly dounted forly-one living yellow maggots in 

 the husk of one single grain of wheat, a number sulFicient to eat up 

 and destroy the corn in a whole ear. One of these yellow flies laid 

 at least eight or ten eggs, of an oblong shape, on my thumb, only 

 while carrying by the wing across three or four ridges." {Harris's 

 Mass. Report, p. 437.) 



It was several years subsequent to this date, that the accounts of 

 the appalling ravages of the hessian fly among the wheat crops of 

 America reached Europe ; and as this fly was universally believed 

 to have been derived from the old world, extensive and careful exa- 

 minations of the grain fields there were made, to detect it, that its 

 habits might be learned, and means devised for preventing its be- 

 coming such a scourge as it was to this country. These investiga- 

 tions, conducted often at the public expense, and by men whose 

 acquirements peculiarly fitted them for such a work, resulted in a 

 :onfident announcement, which received general credence for a long 

 series of years, that the hessian fly did not exist in Europe ; yet in 

 heir course, several other species of insects injurious to the culti- 

 vated grains of that continent were discovered, and the wheat-fly 

 eceived a particular examination. Mr. Curtis, generally so accurate 

 n his statements, says that it was first discovered at this time ; but 



his insect, on being pressed between the fingers, left "a little dry pale brown glossy 

 ]ust; " whereas the wheat-fly leaves no mark upon the fingers, unless it be actually 

 crushed, in which case its fluid juices produce a yellow stain, without any glossiness. 

 Every one accustomed to the handling of insects, will at once recognize the character 

 n question as applying admirably to some small species of moth ; and the "Committee 

 )n Husbandry" of the Society, in their remarks at the close of Col. Carter's paper, are 

 ioubtless correct in their statement, that these insects "appear to be of the same kind 

 .vith those that do the like mischief in Europe, which a gentleman of Angumois 

 lescribes to Mr. Duhamel," and which have since become so well known as the 

 'Angumois grain-moth," described by the naturalist Qlivier under the technical name 

 )f Alucita cerealella. 



VOL. II. — NO. II. H 





