THE NEW GENESEE FARMER, 



v 



in their views, some colling it " the insect, without 

 ever thinking or in.i"iring whether there ore two ; 

 mhera dUfb.ng what is unquest,o„nbly th;; HesB,,,,, 

 fly umler the iinme ol the "wheat worm, witnou 

 k.nowin<^ whether the worm became nn insect, and 

 . versa ; while some are ignorant enough, 



Hoine Vice vufBti , "unc ow...w — o r j ■, 



and they are nc very limited number, to conlound it 

 will, n coleopterous insect of the beetle tnbe, known 

 at the south na the weevil, which inlests the grauery 

 and the harn,-l have wiehed myeelt enionioligist 

 enou.'h to describe this depredator or depredators ; and 

 let fu'ture inquirers tell whether the descriptions can 

 be so reconciled as to make them either cogeneric or 

 identical, but as I am not, and like all ..ther men are 

 prejiidiced in favor of i.iy own opinions, the attempt 

 will only be an npproximafon to the truth. 1- is ne- 

 ce-sary to remark that the Hessian Hy, {tcrulonvjM 

 Hestructor of Kirhy,) is the only one known south ol 

 latitude 40". It is a singular fact, tending to ae es^ 

 lablishment of the affirmative of this question, that the 

 Hesjian (iy and the wheat worm in ihe same stage ol 

 their existence, are preyed upon by a paras tic insect 

 of the order Hym=i.<./7J.r«, (four winged,) b^lo",'" = 

 to the genus Ceraphroa ot LatndU: 1 his is re 

 queutly taken for the wheat fly or H''^?"'" f ' ''"'" 

 L circumstance of its being frequently fouid ,„ vas 

 numbers during the devastations committed by that 

 insect, and many have been deceived by I .e "P^^.";"'^ 

 circumstance of its evolution from the pupa ot the 

 Hessiau fly under their own ey«;' when •" "-"'h " 

 is the only protector we have trom the '"'f/'^f "''j 

 tion of our wheat by the rapid increase of he ly. and 

 b=lon<'3 to that vast class of insects incUi.kil hy i.'n. 

 nieus under the name ot Ichuciirinn ; t;ii3 insect de- 

 ' ,sus her eggs in the larva of the Hessian lly, through 

 « puncture made hy her acute oviduct in the stem ol 

 the wheat ; and tins puuctu'-i has given rise to the 

 opinion, and in fact lurnished the whole, ground for it, 

 that :he Hessian fly pierces the whcatstalkfor the pur- 

 pose of dep03iting its egg in the manner 1 have en- 

 deavored to delineate in the nb_ivc houre, "•'.en it is 

 theinva iahle evidence of the dcBtructiou (.1 thely, 

 and of the birth of its deadliest foe : and """'J'^fJ " 

 wonderful display of that instinctive laculiy by which 

 the genus Ccraphron is enabled to fi'f'he 'me place 

 of deoosit, whefe her young, protected by the ind a- 

 led covering of the fly in its pupa or fl".^^;J'' '■;'',''^' 

 feeds securely until the latter is l^'Hiid- *' ^^"^ «'="•"',- 

 er happens to be unfavurahle to the Ichneumon, or i 

 liny oiher csuse prevents its cITccting this operation at 

 the pro,er period, the following season is always a 

 dreadful one to the wheat grower, as the fly upon an 

 average has about eight or ten young, whose ravages 

 over the whole face of the wheat growing region are 

 cominensuraie witli their increased nuuibers.^^ 



In the British Farmer's Magazine, v.)l. ■>, P- /U''. 

 we are tol i .hat the Urea of the CncMmma tnUca 

 Ibo a.-knowledged wheat fly of New-Lngland, a e 

 p-eyed upon by the Ceraphon, an Ichneumon H , 

 which deposits It egcis in the body ol the larvL* ot the 

 wheat fly. " I could not determine, says the very 

 „c 1 ate'u:horof that article, " whc.her it actual y 

 deoiisits its egg in the maggot's body , but there can 

 be'no doubt of the Ichneumon piercing the maggot 

 with a sting : nud from stinging the eamc- maggot re- 

 pea'edly, h is probable the fly delighla to destroy the 

 na^gus, as well as to deposit eggs in their bodies 

 We shall see presently that the use ol the words Urva 

 Zimi-'Tot m the ab.rve extract, indicate strongly, 

 "hat if tire writer has not the Hessan Ay heioro hm., 

 he has any thing but the wheat worm "' i^*;;; '^'j?; 

 land ; and he usos tlie terms " Cocidomijia triUca 

 in the same sentence. , 



1 think myself fully justiheJ in asserting, ibat the 

 puncture so often observed in the wheat stalk, is made 

 onW by the Tchnonmon, because I Lave Irequently 

 been with Thomas Say. when pursuing his mveM'?''- 

 lions upon this iueec,, and have seen and ,"3^i-«^ '" 

 stripping down the glume or leaf ol the W"'-"' f'^'^^ 

 exalniring the dead or punctv.red larva, and 'he vmg 

 Oraobron ; and the circumstance furnishes ail.lition- 

 uftestimony to the truth of Marcauutta Mounts 

 discovery, that the fly deposits us <=gg on or in the 

 i-rain, and not in the stalk. It seems indeed impossi- 

 ble thV' the Hessian fly should eftect the latter object 

 without puncturing the stalk "^^'^'l'l''"fj.,';7^," """ 

 l^af- but it is not so clear an impossibility that it 

 l^ou'ld be lain in the root Whether laid -n^l^^cr^ 

 „a or in the root, it must have grown with the growti 

 of the plant ; nod ,f in the latter, it will prcibah ly e 

 found more difficult to provide a remedy. It '^e IH-S- 

 siau fly and wheat fly both deposit their eggs on the 

 grain, it shows that some of their hibits are simdar 

 and that the ova most probably passes through the 

 game process m its transformations. • > u 



I fraokly acknowledge that Margarettn Morris oB- 



servations received no favor in my eyes. I thought 

 H eo well ascertained ihat the Hessian fly deposited 

 8 e.- in the stalk or culm, that her condusuins ex- 

 cled^ilcule rather than conviction Having beei-, 

 so much in the company of S:iy, and having relied so 

 much upon his accurate habits of ■nvestigation my 

 foiu, was not to be shaken by a woman : b t s not 



:!;^--^-nri;.^i:,^porr^:[i;t,^tf:;;i: 



awoiiu, .villipe to become vt^chcr for ihe 



fa, t The insect, whose operations she wat., lied so 

 .lu.h, mav t leirforc have been the Cecidomyia 

 :hi"c, which,' Is notoriously the opinion ot n,l New 

 E Xnd, deposits us egg on or ,n the ber.y ; and 

 Then '' crcdalj<^dc,s appcMn, makes Us "extnppea - 

 Lnce in the shape of long, thin intusoua, .heir bodies. 

 ::^^he"arl,estsi;gegelaUnouss.n.t™tspa^ 



ZS,SnS''>:etr;;n;:Mti all eaten. 

 Whde on the contrary, the Hessiau fly in all its earli- 

 er sttris found within the stalk; its arva when 

 first moduced tVom the ova, is white, Us lad very acrte, 

 andnbruptly attenuated, the head incurved; the up 

 S"r sttrface of the body exhibiting a glassy or hyaline 

 Lpec withan internal viscera like a greenish line 

 underneath It shows thick white clouds, which as i 

 advai ce°.o the pupa or flaxseed state, becomes iiimed 

 so as to exhibit regular transverse Begme , « icn a 

 ken Irom it. early membranaceous cove iiig 't seems 

 erfecfly inert ; but when the pupa is advancid to it. 

 u stature, and assumes a dark "^J'^V"':,: kni Uo' 

 lil-e flax seed, with its pintcd covering hrnily knit to 

 gcLr, I Uav'e known it to start and roll o..r severa 

 fimcs on being removed from the wheat stalk If the 

 nT,'et whose habits were thus wa.c'ued by Margaretta 

 Morris, was obaerve i oy her from the "".e of dep si- 

 tin,' its ec<' until it became n larva vi (uc rubn or 

 1 «yco,ff'iis progress was marked from the latter 

 s a e tint 1 the egg was deposited on the berry, so as 

 Teay with certainty that it was deposited by the same 

 nsect thai was hatched from the larva that occupied 

 he t dm thin I think the identity ol the two is pla- 

 ced a ostbevond controversy. It is plain that the 

 writer in the British Magazine could not have appliet^ 

 du terms maf^got and larva to the wortns described 



''^We have '.Tow arrived at what seems nn insuperable 



impediment to recognizing the two insects as congen- 



eHc viz.: the birth' from the ova, ol a living acive 



w" rnrm the one ca.e, and of an inert ve.nehra.ed lar- 



vain the other; and I mu^t ^e Perm.t ed ..e o 



make the remark, with perfect detercnce lo the judg- 



n ent be accurate ob,ervation and excel ent intention 



"That great and good man. Judge Buel, that he has 



br'/clv contributed to circulate erroneous views upon 



h 8 important subject. In lookingover the eaily vol- 



mesof theCultiiaior, I find all his u.formation de- 



i";jnom others; most of it trom British writers 



and some from very inacenrnle corresponde. ts_not 



one syllable from o man of scientific investigations - 



In vol. I, p. 82, he considers the wheat u;,rm as ovi- 



oarmis • and even goes so far as to disp te the exist- 



ence of a/y altogether, giving trom authorities near- 



Iv forty yty^sbauk, drawings of the full grown worm, 



, )" very act of laying its eggs within the kernel of 



he wheat where it had attained maturity. The whoie 



:"f this article commendina r,ud adopting a report to 



I some English S.ciety, said to be from the pen of Mr. 



I BaTer is evidently a labored efl-ort. not to identify the 



whea >'/ or C..cidom,jm tritica, (whose cMslence is 



I disputed,) with the insect then making such disastrous 



tie ays of its power ; but to show that the injury 



v 'snot to be imputed to any 'I'-g be^tmging to the 



i-laRS iasccta. That the Judge was soon obliged to 



modify hVB opinion is manifest from the subsequent 



"libers of the same vol. p. 115, where he coulounds 



it through the aaency of a correspondent, with the 



weevil ; and in v.d. 3, p 05, he admits ,t to be a 



sanf.brow,ifiy, and says it U s.wicUmcsconJmmdcd 



Zhtl,e rcJJl; and finally on p. 1 IS, he arrives a 



he same conclusion as other naturalists, and makes it 



any, depositing its eggs on the wheat, but dropping 



when in the pupa state upon the ground where it re 



mains during the winter. As all ihe prevalent no- 



Oons of the wheat irorm deriving its existence from 



the wheat fly. have originated from this or some equal 



ly loose foundation, wifhout any "eenrate or properly 



authenticated investigation, I shall take the liberty of 



ihinkhKr that the wheat worm is the Ascms pumUai- 



ius whteh is said t.. have been so destructive in Seot- 



^din the year ISMO, (Country Times May 17 



1830 1 I place oil the flics tuat infest the wheat, il 



ndeed the e are nice than one, under the order D.j, 



J^aMr. Bauer (and JudgCBticl endorses h„ opin 



uuO calls his worm the nirrio tritica, which in ploiii 

 English, me^naafy vibraimg or rpavering over Ih, 

 ,cl,ait,-aud at the same tiine lurn.shcs (i pl'"^ '' » 

 r™rm lavin" iia egg in the grain, and surrounded by 

 s onnVbrood. i^s'described in the figure ; the Ju ge 

 naturally enough ad.ipung the figure and rtjeciing thn 

 |,atin cautions liis readers agamat the opinion ol a Jt,j 

 originating so much mischief and argues in lavor ol 

 the worm. 



But the whole argument derived i;rom the deposit 



of larva in the one ca.e, and of a living animate be. 



„B ,n the other, may be put on the debtor side of our 



p^fit and loss account, when we know that theie ar« 



a considerable number ol insects ol the order D,pla,, 



and a large number of the Vibrio, that ore oviparoue 



and viviparous in tl. J same stage or lieriod o their ex- 



?stcnce,i. e. they produce young '>"e«"''^e in he 



spriuff, and then lay eggs till autumn^ Whethe tho 



Hcssfan fiy or the wheat fly possess this power, I am 



"t aturalist enough to decide ; that they neither 



he,n produce living animated contrnctile worms, 



L fully satisfied, as well froin all the "■■» "S es o "a- 



cure as iroin the writings ot those who ■"'"^•'' ' :^ 



opinion in the columns ol the Cultivator. They hay 



had no more success in convincing me of euch an 



1; n on, than they would have bad it they had tiac 



Ihe -Hiicalo-y of the House ot Hapsburgh-or the 



trana".,v,tation of wheat and chess to tire eatne souice 



VVhen the two insects attain what is called the perfec 



or fl; state, they are so exactly similar that 1 am all 



:oss to make the necessary distinctions ; and , Ither 



is any, it probably arises liom '''e one being hai he 



from the ova and larva in the gram of the "l^e»t '«' 



same season, and the iother ■remaining o^e 'he w^in 



ter, and growing with the wheat stalk 'Tne f 1 v. . 



ing very significant remark of Say, who bad Kiily | 



EntomologT. before him, is worth noticing upon ihi 



subject: "When several of them {CcculonnjiadA 



sl:nctor) arc contiguous on the sAme plam,^he pieel 



eiire on the body of the larva is unequal, and an >n: 



qaaUUj in the form of the body is the consequence. 



It is admitted hy all scientitic writers, that in W 



sp.-d^.- of the Cecidomyia, the atlcnna ore ti.ilortr 



tah joints subequal and globular ; wings mcumhe 



and horizontal, and proboscis Ea.ient or moving wii 



a snap ; their legs and poiscrs the same in tonn.a , 



numbe;. Having myself never seen any but wha 



Zmdnthe same insect, and having no compouu 



microscope, hut only a small magnilying glass ii 



description of the Hessian fly would of course be n 



very iriinute, but the head and thorax oreblact ; w ni 



dialc dark brown, lon££er than the body ; the aW 



men itself is brown and is covered with short blat 



"airs. This description is from the living specme 



Now what says Kirby, who describes both msec 



ond every olhlrwritcr who undertakes to describe ll 



Cecidomyui tritica-xnv^i ,be head and thorax ^ 



black, body of a dark orange hue-wmffs bio«n f 



f,C'edwi,h aauler hair., incumbent and horizonla 



shorter ond wider than those ot the Hes^i^n fly a 



approaching more to the sub oval ; the whole , 



sect somewhat leas than the Hessian fly. Ht rep 



sents it as having o sting or puncturing .nstrume 



which wc have not yet detected in the Hessian i 



but which U is very probable the latter also possess 



If I should follow the example of Judge Buel, i 



iect the writings and adopt the drawing of the wbj 



head from Kirhy, it would be very e.asy to a' ow ll 



every ivorai delineated in the wheat is a true larva 



th" joincii segments, membranaceous covenr 



and general aspect 'indicate this very strongly ; a 



Ihe cUcumstonce of its being preyed upon by the li 



neumon, corroborates the opinion. Holkham. 



Friend villc, Pa. 7 mo. 20, 1841. 



Agricultural Adiress at Rochester. 



The Address delivered before the Monroe Com 

 Agrictfllural Society was listened to by a large a 

 evidently highly gratified audience. Notbwiihstai 

 ■m<r the hour was late, and many farmers had o lo 

 w^y to go to their homes, none seemed to regret 

 time occupied, or wish it vi ere shorter. At the cl 

 it W08 unanimously resolved that a committee be i 

 pointed to wait on the Speaker and request a copy 

 the Address for publication. We do not often de 

 it expedient to occupy our columns with agricultc 

 addresses, but this one ontains so much import 

 truth, 80 weU adapted to the limes, and so eloqnet 

 expressed, that we think we should do our read 



injustice by refusing it a place in the Farmrr. 



