262 Insects Injurious to Vegetation. [Oct, 



documents laid before the privy council during their investiga- 

 tions. 



In Dr. B. S. Barton's Fragments of the JVatural History oj 

 Pennsylvania, issued in 1799, the author announces (p. 23) his 

 intention of publishing " a memoir upon that destructive insect 

 called the Hessian fly." It is probable that whatever communi- 

 cations were addressed to the committee of the Philosophical so- 

 ciety, had been consigned to his hands. We are not aware that 

 the promised memoir ever appeared. 



"About the year 1801, the Hessian flies first made their ap- 

 pearance in the neighborhood of the city of Richmond. We saw 

 but little mischief that year. But in 1S02 they were much more 

 destructive — 1803, they swept whole fields — about the same in 

 1804." {H. MClelland, Amer. Farmer, vol. ii. p. 234.) 



In the year 1803, we arrive at the first notice of this species, of 

 a scientific nature. Dr. Mitchell, in a short article in the Medi- 

 cal Repository (vol. vii., p. 97, 98), entitled " Further ravages of 

 the wheat insect, or Tipula tritici of America, and of another 

 species of Tipula in Europe," states that it is now understood 

 that our insect is a Tipula. He alludes to the extent of this 

 genus, (ninety-four species being enumerated by Weber,) and 

 though he has often examined our insect, and bred it so as to ob- 

 serve its transformations, he declines giving a decided opinion 

 whether or not our species is different from all those that had 

 been described. He refers to the species " treated as a non- 

 descript" by the Rev. Mr. Kirby, in the Linnean Transactions, 

 copies its name and technical characters, and closes with the re- 

 mark, that whether Mr. Kirby's insect is a new one or not, it is 

 not the same animal which has been so injurious in this country. 

 Had the doctor but added a few words descriptive of our species, 

 he would undoubtedly be entitled to " the 1)arren honors of a sy- 

 nonym." Respecting the depredations of the insect at this time, 

 w'e learn from him, that " during the cold and dry spring of 1803 

 these creatures again infested the wheat more than they had done 

 for many years. Many crops w^ere cut off early in June, and the 

 ground plowed up for other purposes." 



