156 ARTICULATES: INSECTS. 



HESSIAN FLY AND WHEAT FLY. 



The Hessian Fly expands only about one fourth of 

 an inch, and has the head, antennas, 

 and thorax black, the wings black- 

 ish and fringed with short hairs. 

 The hind body is tawny, with black 

 on each ring, the legs brownish, and 

 feet black. Two broods appear in a 

 year, one in spring and one in au- 

 tumn. The females lay their eggs 

 on the young blades of wheat, both 

 Fig. 291. Hessian Fly. j n spring and fall. The eggs are 

 only about one fiftieth of an inch in length, pale red, 

 and they hatch in about four days, producing pale red 

 maggots. The larvae immediately crawl down the leaf 

 till they come to a joint. Here they rest a little below 

 the surface of the ground till they have undergone their 

 transformations. They injure the plant by slicking its 

 sap. The larvae reach their growth in five or six weeks, 

 and are then covered with a hardening brown or chest- 

 nut-colored skin, and the insect is then said to be in the 

 flax-seed state, from its resemblance to a flax-seed. In 

 April and May they complete their transformations, and 

 come forth in the winged state, and soon begin to lay 

 their eggs upon the spring wheat, and upon that sown 

 the autumn before. The maggots hatched from these 

 eggs pass down the stem as before stated, take the flax- 

 seed form in June or July, and in autumn most of them 

 are transformed into winged insects; others remain 

 through the winter, and are transformed in the spring, 

 as before stated. These flies sometimes move in im- 

 mense swarms in search of fields of their favorite grain 

 where they may lay their eggs. The Hessian Fly re- 



