A N D HO R T I C; U L T U U A L R E G I S T E R . 



PUBLISHED BY JOSKPH BRECK <c CO., NO. 62 NOUTll M.\lllvKT STllKET, (AoRicuiTunAi WA«»iiou»t.)-ALLEPl PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WKnNKSDAY KVK.NINO, JUNR 20, 1840. 



IJsn. s9. 



N. E. FARMER. 



FVoin Hnrria's Report on Iho Insect* of Manacliusetls. 



IIESSI.^N FLY. 

 The far-famed Hessian fly and llie wheat fly of 

 urnpe, and of thi« country, are Email <;nala or 

 (l^os, ami bi'lon^j lo the family calli^d Cceidomy- 

 lift, or "lall-cniils. 'I'he insects of this family are 

 ry niiinoruiis, and mo.<l of tlietn, in the inagfjot 

 ;\to, live in jja.lsor unnatural enlargements of the 

 Ills, leaves, and buds of plants, caused by the 

 iictiir^s of the winged insects in layinu their 

 gs. The lU'ssian fly, wheat fly, and some nth- 

 3 ditfer from the majority in not producing such 

 tcrations in plants. The proboscis of these in- 

 ct'* i.< very short, and does not contain the pierc- 

 g bristles found in the long proboscis of the bi- 

 1? gnats and mosquitos. Their anlennie are 

 composed of many little, bead-like joints, 

 iich are larger in the males than in the other 

 X ; and each joint is surrounded with short hairs. 

 Their eyes are kidney-shaped. Their legs are 

 ;her long and very slender. Their wings have 

 ly tivOj throe, or four veins in them, and are 

 nged with little hairs around the edges; when 

 t in use, they are generally carried fl.it on the 

 k. Tlie hind body of the females often ends 

 ih * retractile, C'inical tube, nhcrewitli they de- 

 lil iheir eugs. Their yoiinj are little footless 

 ggnt.-j, tapering at each end, and generally of a 

 !p yellow or orange color. They live on the 

 ces of plants, and undergo their transformations 

 licr in these plants or in the cround. 

 The He.<sian fly was scientifically described by 

 S.iy, iu 1817, under the name of Cecidonn/ia de- 

 iirlor. It obtained its common name from a 

 ipcisition that it was brought to this country in 

 pic str.-iw, by the Hessian troops und'-'r the coin- 

 11(1 of Sir William Howe, in the war of the Rev. 

 tion. This supposition, however, has been 

 light to be erroneous, because the early inqui- 

 i made to discover the Hessian fly in Germany 

 re unsuccessful ; and, in consequence thereof, 

 Joseph Banks, in his report to the British Gov- 

 iiionl, in 17t?!>, stated that " no such insect 

 lid be found to e.\ist in Germany or any other 

 ! of Europe." It appears, however, that the 

 le insect, or one exactly like it in habits, had 

 n long known in F]iirope ; an account of it may 

 found in Duhamel's "Practical Treatise of 

 ihandry," and in a communication made to the 

 kc of Dorset, in 1788, by the Royal Society of 

 riciilture of France. In the year IS^W, the 

 eat in Hungary was considerably injured by an 

 eel of the same kind, supposed to be the Hes- 

 1 fly by the Baron Kollar. Moreover, .Mr R. 

 Herrick, of New Haven, Connecticut, has re- 

 tly published an account of the discovery of the 

 •i llpsnian fly, by Mr James D. Dana, in Minor- 

 near Toulon in France, and in the vicinity of 

 ple.s. Nothing has yet been found relative to 

 existence of the Hessian fly in America before 

 Revolution. I: was first discovered in the 



year I77(!, in the n'-iglihorliood of Sir William 

 Howe's debarkation on Slaton iKland, and at Flat 

 Bush, on the west end of Long Island. Having 

 multiplied in these places, the insects gradually 

 spread over the aoiitlicrn parts of New York and 

 Connecticut, and continned to proceed inland at 

 the rate of fifteen or twenty miles a year. They 

 reached Saratoga, two hundred miles from their 

 original station, in 176'J. Dr. Chapman says that 

 they were found west of the .Mlegliaiiy mountains 

 in 171'7 ; from their progress through the country, 

 having apparently advanced about thirty miles 

 every summer. Wheat, rye, barley, and even 

 timothy grass were attacked by them; and so 

 great were their ravages in the larva stale, that 

 the cultivation of wheat was abandoned in many 

 places where they had e.<tablislied themselves. In 

 a communication by Mr J. W. JefTreys, published 

 in the sixth volume of Bud's Cultivator, it is sta- 

 ted, that soon affr the battle of Guilford, in North 

 Carolina, the wheal crops were destroyed by the 

 Hessian fly in Orange county, through which the 

 British army, conipused in part of Hessian soldiers, 

 had previously passed. Although it is possible 

 that, in this instance, the chinch bug may have 

 been mistaken f"r the Hessian fly, the rem'irk 

 shows how prevalent was the belief respecting the 

 introduction of the latter. The forerjoing ."tate- 

 meiits, taken in connexion wiih the habits of the 

 Hessian fly, induce me to think that the common 

 opinion relative to its origin is <leserving of some 

 credit, although wo are as yet without any positive 

 evidence of the exisleiice of this insect in Germany. 



The following brief liisiory of the habits and 

 transformations of the Hessian fly, will be found 

 to agree essentially with the excellent observa- 

 tions on this insect, written in the year 1797, by 

 Dr. Isaac Chapman, and published in the fifth vol- 

 ume of the " Mc-molrs of the Philadelphia Society 

 for Promoting Agriculture." .Mr Herrick has 

 kindly permitted me to make free use of Ins valua- 

 ble account ol" this insect, contained in the forty- 

 first volume of "The American Journal of Science," 

 and of other information comiiuiiiicated by him to 

 me in various letters. The latter gentleman has 

 spent some time in carefully observing the habits 

 of the fly, during many years in succession ; and, 

 having fitted himself for the task by the study of 

 the natural history of insects in general, his state- 

 ments may be implicitly relied upon. Moreover 

 they are corroborated by the observations of many 

 other persons, published in various works, which I 

 have consulted in the course of niy investigations. 

 Nor have I neglected to examine every thing on 

 this insect that has fallen under my notice; and 

 shall hereafter allude to some of the contradictory 

 statements that have been published relative to 

 certain parts of its economy. 



The head and thorax of this fly are black. The 

 hind body is tawny, and covered with fine grnyisli 

 hairs. The wings are blackish, but are more or | 

 less tinged wilh yellow at the base, wlicre also j 

 they are very narrow; they are fringed with short! 

 hairs, and are rounded at the end. The body j 

 measures about ontstenth of an inch in length, and 



the wings expand cue quarter of an inch, or more. 

 It IK a true Cccidoim/ia, diflering from Lasioplera 

 ill the shortness of the first ji.intof its feel, and in 

 the greater length of its antcnnn>, the head Iiko 

 swellings whereof are aNo more distant from each 

 other. Two broods or gf-nerations arc brought to 

 maturity in the course of a year, and the flies ap- 

 pear in ihe spring and autumn, but rather earlier 

 in the Southern and Middle Stites than in .Vew 

 Lngland. The transfnriiialions i.f some in each 

 brood appear to be r'-tarded beyond the ii«unl lime, 

 as is found to be the case with many other insect* ; 

 BO that the life of these individuals, from the egg to 

 the winged slate, extend.-* to a year or m-prc in 

 length, whereby the continuation of the species in 

 after years is made more sure. It has frequently 

 been aiisertcd that the flies lay their eggs on the 

 grain in the ear; hut whether this be true or not, 

 it is certain that they do lay their eggs on the 

 young plants, and long before the grain is ripe; 

 for inaiiy persons have witnessed and testified lo 

 this fact. In the New England States, winter 

 wheat, as it is called, is usually sown about the 

 fir.-it of .«5epteniber. Towards the eml of this 

 month, and in October, when the grain has sprout- 

 ed, and begins to show a leaf or two, the flies ap- 

 pear in the fields, and, having paired, begin In lay 

 their eggs, in which business liiey are occupied for 

 several weeks. The following inleresling account 

 of -'if- manner in which tips h done, was vritten 

 by Mr Edward Tilghinan, of Queen Ann county, 

 Maryland, and was published in the eighth vol- 

 lime of "The Cultivator," in May, 1841. "By 

 the second week of Oct"ber, the first sown wheat 

 being well up, and having generally put fnrih its 

 second and third blades, I resorted lo my field in a 

 fine warm forenoon, to endeavor to satisfy myself 

 by occular demonstration, whether the fly did de- 

 posit the egg on the blades of the growing plant. 

 Si'Iccting a favorable spot to make my observa- 

 tion, I placed myself in a reclining position in a 

 furrow, ond had been on the watch but a minute or 

 two, before I discovered a number of small black 

 flies alighting and sitting on the wheat plants 

 around me, and presently one settled on the ridged 

 surface of a blade of a plant, completely within 

 my reach and distinct observation. She immedi- 

 ately began depositing her eggs in the longiludi- 

 nal cavity between the little ridges of the blade. 

 1 could distinctly see the eggs ejected from a kind 

 of tube or sting. After she had deposited eight or 

 ti'H eggs, I easily caught her upon the blade, and 

 wrapped her up in a piece of paper. I thi-n pro- 

 ceeded to take up Iho plant, with as much as Icon- 

 veniently could of the circumjacent earth, and 

 wrapped it all securely in a piece of paper. .After 

 that I continued my observations on the flies, 

 caught several similarly occupied, and could see 

 the eggs uniformly placed in Ihe longitudinal cavi- 

 ties of the blad(;s of the wheat; their apjH-arance 

 bcintr that of niinute reddish specks. My own 

 n.ind being thus completely and fully satisfied as 

 to the mode in which the egg was deposited, I 

 proceeded directly to my dwelling, and put the 

 plant wilh the eggs upon it, in a large glass luin- 



